^  —  ■  N 

i  BT  40  .G27  1923 

Gardner,  Percy,  1846-1937. 
The  practical  basis  of 
Christian  belief 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


A 


THE  PRACTICAL  BASIS 
OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


"By  the  Same  Author. 

MODERNITY  AND  THE  CHURCHES. 

THE  EPHESIAN  GOSPEL. 

THE  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE  OF 
ST  PAUL. 

EVOLUTION  IN  CHRISTIAN 
ETHICS. 

EVOLUTION  IN  CHRISTIAN 
DOCTRINE. 

Crown  8vo.  Cloth.  Each  6s.  net. 


THE  PRACTICAL  BASIS 
OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 

AN  ESSAY  IN  RECONSTRUCTION 


;  0^rr  iQ/3 

BY  ■' 

PERCY  GARDNER,  D.Litt.  '  - 

FELLOW  OF  THE  BRITISH  ACADEMY,  AND  CORRESPONDING  MEMBER  OF 
THE  FRENCH  INSTITUTE  AND  THE  PRUSSIAN  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER’S  SONS 

LONDON;  WILLIAMS  &  NORGATE 

1923 


Primed  in  Great  Britain 


PREFACE 


The  coming  on  of  old  age  warns  me  that  it  is 
time  for  me  to  set  down  in  final  form  the  eon- 
ception  of  Christian  belief  to  whieh  I  have  been 
led  by  the  studies  and  experienee  of  many  years. 
Throughout  a  not  unlaborious  life,  during  which 
my  chief  and  professional  oeeupation  has  been 
the  study  and  teaching  of  archaeology,  there  has 
always  been  running  an  independent  sub-current 
of  religious  thought  whieh  I  eould  not  eseape. 
The  germs  of  it  are  to  be  found  in  papers  written 
but  not  published  soon  after  the  completion  of 
my  University  course  in  1870.  Since  then,  my 
studies  have  appeared  in  several  published  works, ^ 
as  well  as  in  many  papers  in  The  Hibbert  Journal, 
The  Modern  Churchman,  and  elsewhere. 

In  these  works  I  have  endeavoured,  working  as 
a  layman  and  a  free-lance,  to  set  forth  the 
modifieations  in  the  basis  and  the  expression  of 

^  It  may  be  convenient  here  to  give  a  list  of  these  : — 
Exploratio  Evangelica,  1899,  2nd  ed.,  1907  ;  Historic  View  of 
the  New  Testaynent,  1901  ;  The  Growth  of  Christianity,  1907  ; 
Modernity  and  the  Churches,  1909  ;  The  Religious  Experience 
of  St  Paul,  1913  ;  The  Ephesian  Gospel,  1915  ;  Evolution  in 
Christian  Doctrine,  1918  ;  Evolution  in  Christian  Ethics,  1918. 

h 


V 


vi  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 

Christian  belief  which  seem  to  me  to  be  necessi¬ 
tated  by  recent  tendencies  of  thought.  These 
tendencies  seem  to  be  mainly  four  :  (1)  The 

spread  of  the  doctrine  of  relativity  over  a  wider 
and  wider  field ;  (2)  the  progress  of  religious 
psychology ;  (3)  the  comparative  study  of  religions ; 
(4)  the  change  in  our  views  of  Early  Christian 
history.  It  is  clear  that  I  cannot  profess  to  be 
an  adept  in  all  these  fields.  Perhaps  no  one  can 
make  such  a  claim.  But  I  may  venture,  without 
presumption,  to  state  freely  any  observations  and 
views  which  occur  to  me.  How  far  they  are 
true  is  for  others  to  judge.  Anyone  who  writes 
from  the  relativist  point  of  view  will  always 
realise  that,  however  well  grounded  may  be  his 
theories,  there  must  necessarily  be  in  them 
much  of  the  personal  element.  If  this  be  borne 
in  mind  the  charge  of  presumption  cannot  be 
brought  against  him. 

It  must  be  stated  emphatically  that  none  of 
my  colleagues,  of  the  Churchmen’s  Union  or 
any  other  society,  can  be  made  responsible  for 
my  views,  unless  hereafter  they  express  agreement 
with  them. 

(1)  The  philosophic  doctrine  of  relativity,  in¬ 
troduced  into  modern  philosophy  by  Descartes, 
and  carried  further  by  Hume  and  Kant,  has 
cut  the  ground  away  from  under  older  systems 
of  dogmatic  or  absolute  theology.  It  has  been 
at  the  basis  of  recent  scientific  construction,  and 


PREFACE 


vii 


now  apparently  it  has  received  from  Einstein 
mathematical  demonstration,  though  this  is  a 
subject  on  which  I  do  not  venture  to  pronounce  : 
such,  however,  is  the  contention  of  Lord  Haldane 
in  his  Reign  of  Relativity, 

It  has  been  maintained  by  Roman  Catholic 
authorities,  and  it  has  been  declared  in  recent 
works,  such  as  those  of  Ehrhard  in  Germany 
and  Dr  Harris  in  England,  that  the  critical 
philosophy  of  Kant  is,  if  accepted,  fatal  to  all 
Christian  belief.  But  Kant  himself  saw  that  his 
views  needed  supplementing  and  guarding,  and 
in  his  Critique  of  the  Practical  Reason  tried  to 
relay  the  foundations  of  belief,  not  on  the 
intellectual  but  on  the  active  powers  of  man. 

It  was  natural  that,  starting  in  1870,  I  should 
have  worked  on  a  Kantian  basis.  The  Kantian 
Critique  of  Pure  Reason  seemed  to  me  logically 
unanswerable.  But  it  was  supplemented  by  the 
Critique  of  the  Practical  Reason,  which  offered  a 
way,  perhaps  not  altogether  consistent,  but  on 
the  whole  satisfactory,  for  escaping  from  scepti¬ 
cism  and  subjectivity  into  energy  and  freedom. 
The  Critique  of  the  Practical  Reason  is  the  fore¬ 
runner  of  the  pragmatist  and  activist  schemes 
of  thought  and  ethics,  which  have  grown  with 
such  vigour  in  recent  years — the  schemes  of  James 
and  Bergson  and  Croce  and  others.  Thus  though 
I  do  not  find  it  necessary  to  retract  the  argument 
of  the  early  chapters  of  the  Exploratio,  I  now 


viii  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


think  it  sufficient  to  take  a  start  from  the  practical 
faculties  of  mankind,  and  to  leave  the  question  of 
the  abstract  possibility  of  knowledge  and  ex¬ 
perience  to  professed  metaphysicians. 

The  principle  of  relativity  is  by  no  means 
opposed  to  the  belief  in  reality ;  but  it  does 
stand  in  opposition  to  the  metaphysical  notion 
of  the  absolute.  This  term  indeed  is  used  in 
many  senses ;  so  many  that  I  think  it  best 
avoided.  It  is  much  better  to  speak  of  the 
divine  transcendence  than  of  the  absolute  Deity, 
because  this  latter  phrase  has  been  so  much  used 
as  a  counter  in  metaphysical  discussion  that 
many  writers  regard  it  as  valuable  coin.  It  is 
better  to  speak  on  grounds  of  experience  of 
a  Deity  partly  hidden  and  partly  revealed,  than 
on  logical  grounds  of  an  absolute  Being,  about 
whom  it  is  easy  to  say  more  than  one  can  possibly 
know. 

(2)  Parallel  to  the  drift  in  philosophy  in  the 
direction  of  relativity  is  the  drift  in  psychology; 
recent  works  in  which  subject,  leaving  the 
introspective  analysis  of  the  intellectual  powers, 
have  maintained  that  the  instincts  and  impulses 
are  the  more  fundamental  and  essential  part  of 
man ;  and  that  intellect,  however  noble  and 
important,  is  a  side  of  human  nature  later  in 
origin  and  far  inferior  in  driving  power.  So  far 
as  I  am  acquainted  with  the  works  of  Freud  and 
Jung  and  their  followers,  I  find  in  them  much 


PREFACE 


IX 


that  is  repellent,  but  also  much  of  permanent 
interest.  Their  root  principles  seem  to  me  of 
value,  but  they  lay  an  unnecessary  stress  on 
unhealthy  and  abnormal  phases  of  mentality. 
Their  religious  views  I  find  intolerable.  But 
such  works  as  James’s  Varieties  of  Religious 
Experience  and  M^Dougall’s  Social  Psychology 
are  of  extraordinary  value. 

(3)  There  has  arisen  out  of  anthropological 
research  a  new  science,  the  science  of  comparative 
religion.  And  it  is  beyond  question  that  the 
way  of  comparing  one  religion  with  another,  and 
tracing  definite  tendencies  in  one  after  another, 
has  made  us  regard  religious  belief  in  quite  a 
fresh  light.  It  need  not  make  any  Christian  less 
confident  in  the  truth  of  his  own  beliefs,  and  it 
offers  a  new  and  experimental  basis  for  most  of 
the  essential  beliefs  of  the  Christian  Church ;  but 
it  is  a  foe  to  the  intolerant  exclusiveness  which 
occupies  in  the  history  of  belief  a  place  parallel 
to  that  occupied  by  the  notion  of  the  absolute 
in  metaphysical  philosophy. 

(4)  The  historic  roots  of  Christianity  lie  in 
those  fields  of  ancient  history  to  which  immense 
attention  has  been  paid  by  savants  since  the 
Renaissance.  By  continual  working,  and  through 
ever  fresh  discoveries,  scholars  have  gradually 
developed  comparative  and  critical  methods, 
which  have  entirely  altered  our  ways  of  regarding 
the  ages  in  which  Greece  and  Rome  were  pre- 


X  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


dominant.  By  an  inevitable  tendency,  these 
same  methods  have  been  applied  to  the  early 
history  and  to  the  sacred  books  of  Christianity, 
with  notable  and  far-reaching  results.  The  faults 
of  excessive  scepticism  and  of  love  of  system, 
common  in  academic  circles,  have  led  some 
eminent  critics  to  views  which  are  unbalanced 
and  fanciful.  Such  writers  as  Schweitzer  and 
Schmiedel,  not  to  mention  the  most  extreme, 
have  certainly  allowed  a  pedantic  love  of  sym¬ 
metry  and  system  to  lead  them  beyond  the 
bounds  of  moderation.  At  present,  such  excesses 
have  caused  a  certain  amount  of  conservative 
reaction.  But  the  tendency  works  steadily,  and 
is  not  likely  to  meet  any  but  temporary  set-backs. 

It  is  frequently  said  by  Christian  apologists 
that  the  conflict  between  science  and  Christianity 
is  at  an  end.  There  is  a  certain  amount  of 
truth  in  this  statement.  The  old  crude  antagonism 
between  Genesis  and  geology,  and  generally  the 
tendency  of  the  men  of  physical  science  to  despise 
the  Bible  and  the  Church,  is  in  our  day  far  less 
acute.  But  no  one  who  had  adequate  knowledge 
would  venture  to  say  that  the  growing  science  of 
psychology,  the  science  of  comparative  religion, 
and  the  progress  of  historic  criticism,  have  not 
an  important  bearing  on  religious  belief.  They 
are  in  the  highest  degree  destructive  of  that 
complacent  convention  in  Christian  belief  which 
fancies  itself  orthodox,  being  really  very  far  from 


PREFACE 


XI 


the  orthodoxy  of  early  Christianity.  There  is  an 
urgent  need  of  reconstruction  of  belief  on  a  new 
and  more  trustworthy  basis.  This  is  the  object 
to  which  the  present  work  is  a  modest  contribution. 

Such  attempts  at  reconstruction  are  as  far  as 
possible  removed  from  merely  rationalist  and 
destructive  criticism.  Modern  psychology  has 
fully  justified  many  of  the  instincts  and  feel¬ 
ings  which  rationalism  regarded  as  superstitious. 
Modern  historic  criticism,  while  diminishing  the 
supernatural  and  abnormal  element  in  early 
Christianity,  has  in  fact  tended  to  bring  out  its 
pure  lustre.  A  great  part,  if  not  the  whole,  of 
Christian  doctrine  turns  out  to  be  based  upon 
fundamental  facts  in  the  nature  of  man  and  the 
spiritual  world.  That  is  the  conviction  with 
which  I  have  always  written,  and  the  conviction 
becomes  stronger  as  I  grow  old. 

It  is  obvious  that,  writing  in  so  brief  and 
summary  a  way,  I  am  obliged  to  be  dogmatic, 
to  state  views  without  fully  establishing  them, 
and  still  more,  without  replying  to  the  many 
objections  which  will  occur  to  readers.  I  think 
there  are  few  of  these  objections  which  I  have 
not  considered  and  tried  to  meet  in  previous 
volumes.  Those  who  do  not  grant  my  premisses 
will  naturally  reject  the  views  based  on  them. 
Yet  I  think  that,  although  many  points  in  them 
may  have  to  be  altered  as  knowledge  and  science 
grow,  at  least  the  type  of  them  will  persist,  and 


xii  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


I  also  think  that  such  a  basis  as  I  here  attempt 
to  lay  down  will  serve  for  many  types  of  Christian 
belief,  Catholic,  Protestant,  or  even  Quaker. 

That  this  hope  is  not  chimerical  seems  to  be 
indicated  by  a  test.  Recently  six  excellent 
addresses  on  “  Religion  and  Life  ”  have  been 
given  at  Oxford  by  noted  speakers,  Anglican, 
Presbyterian,  and  Lay.  I  do  not  suppose  that 
these  theologians  would  generally  accept  the 
views  of  this  book.  But  I  think  that  any  one 
of  the  six  might  adopt  them  without  having  to 
alter  his  address  in  any  important  particular. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 
CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 
I 

All  religions  try  to  shorten  the  distance  between  man  and  God. 
The  Psalms,  i.  Yet  the  way  hard,  2.  Some  mediator 
necessary,  3.  The  prophets  and  the  Son,  3.  The  Church 
and  personal  approach,  4.  In  the  Synoptics  the  Spirit 
spoken  of  as  leading  men  to  God,  4.  So  in  the  early  history 
in  Acts,  5.  But  St  Paul  speaks  rather  of  the  life  in  Christ,  5. 
His  teaching  practical,  and  neglecting  doctrinal  elements,  6. 
The  Fourth  Evangelist  speaks  both  of  the  Spirit  and  of 
Christ,  6.  Paul  has  a  scheme  of  soteriology,  the  Evangelist 
of  theology,  7.  The  latter  brings  in  Hellenic  elements,  7. 
Hence  a  Creed,  which  did  not  exist  among  the  Jews,  8,  At 
present  the  speculative  philosophy  which  produced  it  is 
largely  out  of  date,  9.  Yet  the  Creeds  persist,  10.  The 
laity  frankly  do  not  understand  them,  10.  But  right  thinking 
in  matters  of  religion  of  the  greatest  importance,  ii. 


II 

The  grounds  of  Christianity  must  be  investigated  in  all  fields, 
natural  science,  psychology,  and  history,  12.  The  first  of 
these  of  less  direct  importance,  though  doctrines  of  evolution 
and  relativity  pertinent,  13.  The  growth  of  the  historic 
spirit,  13.  History  treated  of  more  fully  in  Exploratio 
Evangelica,  14.  The  most  important  to  our  purpose  are 
recent  discoveries  in  psychology,  affecting  medicine,  educa¬ 
tion,  and  especially  religion,  14.  Need  for  complete  revision 
of  the  creeds,  15.  Tradition  must  be  questioned,  and  the 
facts  of  experience  fully  considered,  16. 

xiii 


xiv  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  NATURE  OF  PERSONALITY 

I 

Difficulty  of  the  subject,  when  we  pass  behind  the  obvious,  20. 
The  active  and  conative  faculties  in  man  primary,  21. 
Sketch  of  the  psychology  of  knowledge  from  this  point  of 
view,  21.  The  world  discovered  through  its  resistances,  22  ; 
also  ourselves,  both  body  and  soul,  23. 

II 

Our  primary  instincts  according  to  M'Dougall,  24.  We  may 
further  analyse  them,  25.  Comparison  of  the  human  spirit 
to  a  particle  of  radium,  26.  But  they  differ  because  the 
former  has  a  power  of  self-determination,  27.  Possibly  a 
man  can  act  outside  his  physical  frame,  28  ;  but  certainly 
his  mind  can  so  act,  by  suggestion  and  telepathy,  29.  We 
naturally  think  of  ourselves  as  self-contained  units,  but  this 
is  largely  illusion,  29.  The  inner  predominant  over  the 
outer,  30.  Man  a  centre  of  force,  31.  Extension  of  the 
idea  of  personality  to  groups  and  states,  32.  In  quiet  times 
individualism  dominant  :  less  so  in  stormy  times,  33.  The 
surface  of  consciousness  covers  much  illusion,  34. 


CHAPTER  III 

PERSONALITY  AND  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

The  human  spirit  in  contact  with  a  flow  of  life  and  energy,  which 
may  lead  to  good,  35. 

\ 

I.  Personality  and  the  Unconscious 

A  variety  of  comparisons  may  throw  light  on  this  relation,  36. 
We  may  compare  a  coral  island  built  up  by  living  things 
but  resting  on  the  bottom  of  the  ocean,  37.  Or  a  floating 
iceberg  which  turns  over,  and  shows  a  new  facet,  38.  Or  a 
narrow  inlet  of  the  sea  which  has  individuality,  but  is  con¬ 
nected  with  the  continuous  ocean,  39.  The  will  of  man  like 
a  sluice-gate,  38.  The  term  unconscious  only  implies  not 
entering  into  our  individual  consciousness,  39,  Man’s 
business  is  to  modify  the  visible  world  by  means  of  ideas 
taken  from  the  invisible,  39.  The  above  analogies  suggest 
that  every  deed  of  man  tends  to  modify  the  general  un¬ 
conscious,  40.  At  present  I  use  vague  terms  which  will 
become  clear  later,  41. 


CONTENTS  XV 

II.  The  Sub-conscious  and  the  Super-conscious 

Comparison  of  consciousness  to  the  solar  spectrum  beyond  which 
rays  do  not  cause  perception,  42.  It  has  been  evolved  in 
the  ages,  43.  Phenomena  of  hypnotism,  and  of  spiritism, 
an  unalluring  but  necessary  subject  of  study,  45.  Most  of 
the  ordinary  phenomena  of  spiritism  are  not  above  but 
below  the  level  of  conscious  life  :  they  are  usual  among 
savages,  but  are  later  outgrown,  48.  Among  these  are 
usually  trance  and  ecstasy,  though  sometimes  these  are 
vehicles  of  the  higher,  49.  Genius  not  only  shown  in  the 
sub-conscious,  50.  A  fine  human  personality  is  really  the 
highest  thing,  51 .  Spiritism  as  usually  practised  lowers  it,  52. 
The  communications  take  their  tone  from  the  surrounding 
atmosphere,  and  are  not  lofty  in  character,  53.  There  is  little 
of  ethical  idea  or  on  the  level  of  the  best  human  intelligence, 
54.  It  is  sometimes  maintained,  however,  that  their  low 
average  level  makes  them  more  credible,  55. 

III.  The  Conscious  and  Unconscious  in  Religion 

A  relief  to  turn  to  conscious  humanity,  56.  Primacy  in  the  life 
of  will,  the  wills  of  men  and  that  of  God,  57.  This  the  primal 
teaching  of  the  Gospels,  which  has  with  time  taken  stronger 
hold,  59. 

IV 

Three  stages  in  religion  ;  (i)  When  it  is  concerned  with  the  sub¬ 
conscious,  i.e,  barbaric  or  pagan,  61.  This  necessarily  decays 
as  man  becomes  civilised,  62.  (2)  When  concerned  with  the 

conscious,  notably  Greek  philosophic  theism,  63.  (3)  When 

concerned  with  the  super-conscious,  as  the  best  religion  of 
Judsea,  and  Christianity,  which  inculcates  harmony  of  will 
between  God  and  man,  produced  by  -pxdiyer,  64. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  CLAIMS  OF  SPIRIT 

I 

The  better  teaching  is  that  the  inner  spiritual  world  is  higher 
than  the  visible,  67.  So  Plato,  Kant,  and  others  :  and  so 
Christianity,  67,  From  the  resistances  of  physical  sur¬ 
roundings  we  learn  natural  law,  68.  Parallel  is  the  discovery 
of  spiritual  law,  68.  In  the  Middle  Ages  men  regarded 
knowledge  of  it  as  derived  only  from  revelation  in  books  or  a 
society,  68.  But  inspiration  takes  form  and  colour  from  the 
intellectual  conditions  of  the  time,  69.  At  bottom  the 
matter  is  one  of  experience  :  the  venture  of  faith  and  divine 
aid,  70. 


xvi  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


II 

The  difficulty  lies  in  the  interpretation  of  such  aid,  71.  Paths 
to  union  with  the  divine,  72.  The  way  of  asceticism  in  East 
and  West,  72.  Some  truth  in  it,  as  proved  by  history,  73. 
The  way  of  practical  philanthropy,  75.  This  has  come  much 
into  the  foreground,  75.  The  way  of  intellectual  sympathy, 
76.  The  devotee  of  science,  77.  The  wa-y  of  art,  77. 

Ill 

The  constant  hopefulness  of  nature,  79.  The  chief  duty  of  man 
to  take  a  place  in  the  spiritual  world  and  its  embodiments  in 
time  and  place,  80.  We  have  also  to  consider  the  point  of 
view  of  the  individual,  as  men  naturally  desire  happiness,  81. 
But  true  happiness  comes  from  conformity  to  the  law  of 
one’s  being,  even  among  animals,  82,  It  is  not  dependent 
on  outward  prosperity,  but  comes  from  within,  82.  Self¬ 
subordination  to  the  happiness  of  others,  83. 


CHAPTER  V 

INSPIRATION  AND  REVELATION 


I 


Inspiration  and  revelation  two  sides  of  the  same  fact,  84.  This 
fact  a  special  feature  of  the  Jewish  race  ;  absent  in  Greece, 
85.  The  psychology  of  inspiration,  86.  Dreams  not  of  the 
first  importance,  87  :  rather  any  times  of  quiet  and  passivity, 
87.  Such  times  rare  in  modern  life,  88.  W.  James  and 
the  uprush  of  the  unconscious,  88.  The  Jewish  prophets 
primarily  preachers  of  righteousness,  89.  They  taught  at 
first  that  righteousness  led  to  happiness  in  the  individual,  89. 
Later,  they  spoke  of  a  future  realm  of  happiness  for  the 
nation,  90.  The  root  of  inspiration  divine  ;  its  expression 
in  words  defective,  owing  especially  to  a  poverty  of  intellectual 
outlook,  91.  Attempt  to  foretell  future  events  a  failure,  92. 
Doctrine  of  infallibility  of  Scripture,  taken  over  by 
Christianity,  93 .  Inspiration  not  confined  to  the  unconscious, 
94. 


II 

Difficulty  of  separating  inspiration  from  its  imperfect  expression, 
95.  Belief  in  it  based  rather  on  emotion  and  experience 
than  on  reason,  95.  What  is  meant  by  infallibility,  96. 
Difficulty  in  testing  inspiration,  96.  French  Modernists 
confine  it  to  dogma,  and  except  from  it  history,  97.  This 
rejected  by  Rome,  97.  In  the  Middle  Ages,  the  world  of 
nature  was  contrasted  with  the  world  of  grace,  98.  A 


CONTENTS 


•  • 


xvii 

modern  rendering  of  this  distinction  would  lie  in  contrasting 
what  may  be  called  the  oxygenic  element  in  life,  the  realm 
.  of  impulse  and  initiative,  and  the  nitrogenic  element,  the 
course  of  the  world,  98.  The  frontier  between  the  two 
runs  through  personality,  100. 

CHAPTER  VI 
CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 
I 

Ethics  may  be  treated  in  a  static  or  a  dynamic  way  :  the  latter  way 
is  ours,  loi .  Religion  represents  the  doing  of  God’s  will  as  the 
way  of  goodness,  102.  The  subject  of  the  divine  will  may 
be  approached  on  the  intellectual,  the  emotional,  or  the 
active  side,  103.  On  the  intellectual  side  we  have  moral 
philosophy,  which  has  of  late  developed  in  the  direction  of 
Utilitarianism,  105.  The  result  has  been  a  tendency  towards 
overvaluing  the  obvious  and  the  material,  106.  Christianity 
contrasted  with  Utilitarianism  because  it  asserts  the  inherent 
difference  between  good  and  evil,  109.  Authority  in  religion, 
less  conspicuous  in  Christianity  than  in  Islam  :  hence  the 
former  can  progress,  no. 


II 

Christ  used  natural  analogies  to  show  the  nature  of  the  spiritual 
life,  1 12.  We  may,  with  the  growth  of  natural  and  historic 
knowledge,  extend  them,  113.  The  Jewish  code  of  ethics 
accepted  by  Jesus,  but  made  elastic,  115,  Ethics  by  him 
based  on  the  love  of  God  and  man,  115.  Hence  mere 
attention  to  the  surroundings  of  life  insufficient,  116. 
Christian  ethics  based  on  facts  of  psychology  :  it  takes  the 
activist  view  of  life,  117.  Not  all  deeds  done  with  good 
motive  good,  118.  But  accord  with  the  divine  will  implies 
a  complete  conversion  of  heart,  119. 

CHAPTER  VII 

THE  DIVINE  FATHER 

c 

I.  God  and  Human  Personality 

God  as  transcendent,  and  the  source  of  all  things,  120.  Myths 
of  creation,  121.  God  as  immanent,  in  contact  with  the 
spirit  of  man,  121.  Man  no  parasite,  but  a  giver  as  well 
as  a  receiver,  122.  Thus  a  partnership  in  conduct,  123. 
Hence  great  value  of  personality,  which  expands  by  contact 
with  God,  124.  This  the  essence  of  the  Christian  faith,  124. 


xviii  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


II.  Jewish  and  Greek  Conceptions  of  God 

The  Jewish  Jehovah,  originally  tribal,  125.  God  in  Plato  and 
the  Stoics,  125.  The  Jews  thought  of  God  as  personal,  the 
Greeks  usually  as  impersonal,  126,  In  the  Gospels,  no 
speculation  as  to  the  nature  of  God,  127.  Early  Christianity 
baptizes  into  Christ  the  Jewish  and  the  Greek  theism,  127. 

III.  God’s  Power,  Holiness,  and  Love 

An  absolute  Deity  passes  our  comprehension,  128,  As  known  to 
us  God  wields  all  power  except  that  cut  off  by  human  wills, 

129.  God  the  source  even  of  human  power  and  goodness, 

130.  So  the  Old  Testament,  130.  But  God's  power  best 
seen  in  the  working  of  ideals,  132.  We  become  conscious  of 
a  higher  will,  into  which  we  cannot  be  wholly  absorbed,  132. 
Objection  that  the  phrase  “  will  of  God  "  is  anthropomorphic 
— not  valid,  132.  Action  and  reaction  between  man  and  God, 
132.  The  notions  of  fatherhood  of  God  and  of  brotherhood 
of  man,  133.  Without  the  former,  the  latter  impotent,  133. 
God  no  weak  or  indulgent  parent,  134.  Nor  does  he  intervene 
by  cataclysms,  135.  The  current  notions  of  God  greatly 
need  stiffening  :  the  divine  righteousness  often  obscured, 
136.  Yet  it  may  be  traced  everywhere  in  history  and  in 
present  social  conditions,  137.  Sin  anti-social  and  self¬ 
destructive,  1 39.  The  physical  world  a  place  not  of  capricious 
interference  but  of  law  and  order,  139.  So  is  the  world  of 
human  action  and  morals,  140. 

IV.  God  in  History 

Divine  help  in  the  past,  especially  of  England,  141.  The  love  of 
God  a  stream  of  influence  which  does  not  affect  all  men  and 
nations  equally,  but  some  more  than  others,  142.  The 
Jews  and  the  Greeks;  so  in  regard  to  individuals  also,  143. 
The  goodness  of  God  in  the  forgiveness  of  sin,  144.  Nature 
implacable  ;  but  divine  overruling,  144. 

V.  The  Divine  Personality 

A  naive  conception  of  God’s  personality  untenable,  145.  Its 
meaning  not  abstract,  but  relative  and  practical,  146.  A  priori 
arguments  out  of  place,  146.  Argument  from  experience  ; 
especially  from  the  experience  of  prayer,  147.  Close  likeness 
to  our  relation  to  fellow-men,  147.  Hence  it  is  natural  to 
think  of  God  also  as  personal,  148.  But  this  is  only  in  a  degree 
legitimate,  149.  Analogy  of  wireless  telegraphy,  149.  In¬ 
tellectual  difficulties  in  relation  to  divine  personality  induce 
men  to  crave  mediators,  150,  Experience  in  the  same  way 
reveals  diabolic  personalities,  151.  This  doctrine  generally 
unpleasing  ;  so  men  find  substitutes,  1 51 .  But  the  experience 
they  cannot  set  aside,  152. 


CONTENTS 


XIX 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  ETERNAL  CHRIST 

I.  The  Person  of  Christ  in  the  Gospels 

The  questions  in  regard  to  Christ  the  most  important  to  Christians, 
153*  We  have  to  collate  the  historic  picture  of  Jesus  and 
the  vision  of  the  exalted  Christ,  154.  We  must  give  up  the 
random  citing  of  texts  from  various  books  of  the  Bible,  and 
instead  apply  to  the  Gospels  the  methods  derived  from 
criticism  of  Greek  and  Roman  authors,  155.  We  must 
distinguish,  in  the  first  place,  between  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
as  to  himself,  and  the  views  of  the  disciples,  156.  The 
Fourth  Gospel  and  the  Pauline  Epistles  belong  to  the  second 
class,  156.  The  teaching  of  Jesus  as  to  himself  is  of  a  purely 
practical,  not  a  speculative  character,  158.  He  does  not 
explain  his  relation  to  God,  159.  He  spoke  of  a  coming  end 
of  the  world,  and  seems  to  have  thought  of  himself  as  chief 
actor,  160.  But  in  the  Gospels  what  is  primary  is  not  this 
but  a  new  sense  of  spiritual  values,  161.  The  roots  of  the 
teaching  go  into  the  whole  spiritual  ground  of  life,  162. 
Thus  it  survived  the  decay  of  the  eschatological  beliefs,  162. 
The  miraculous  element  in  the  life  not  of  the  greatest  im¬ 
portance,  162.  Dr  Sanday’s  view  that  the  seat  of  the  divine 
in  Jesus  was  in  the  unconscious  is  only  part  of  the  truth,  163. 

H.  The  Person  of  Christ  among  the  Early 

Disciples 

After  the  Crucifixion  the  disciples  persuaded  of  the  continued 
presence  of  their  Master,  164.  In  explaining  this,  they 
produced  theories  as  to  his  nature,  165.  Matthew  and  Luke 
held  a  monadic  view,  and  do  not  speak  of  pre-existence,  165. 
Paul  regards  his  Master  as  a  great  spiritual  Power,  pre¬ 
existent,  and  at  death  restored  to  heaven,  166.  The  Fourth 
Evangelist  speaks  of  the  ideal  Christ  sojourning  among  men  ; 
and  holds  that  his  person  was  superhuman,  166.  He 
maintains  that  the  Jews  continually  misunderstood  his 
teaching  by  taking  it  in  a  material  sense,  167.  Even  the 
second  coming  he  spiritualises,  168.  His  Jesus  calls  himself 
the  Son  of  God  because  consecrated  by  God,  169.  In  one 
place  he  speaks  of  him  as  the  incarnate  word  or  reason  of 
God,  169.  In  the  last  chapters  he  speaks  both  of  Christ  as 
coming  again  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  coming  to  carry  on 
his  work,  170.  Paul  is  convinced  that  the  life  of  Christ 
caused  a  new  orientation  in  the  world  of  spirit,  170.  The 
writer  of  Hebrews  speaks  of  Christ  as  Mediator  and  High 


XX  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


Priest,  1 71  :  later  writers  as  partaking  of  the  Godhead, 
whence  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  173.  All  these  attempts 
based  on  the  continued  inspiration  of  the  Church,  173. 

III.  Christ  in  History  and  Experience 

We  have  to  consider  how  the  doctrine  of  Christ  and  the  Church 
is  related  to  modern  experience,  173.  The  hyphen  between 
Jesus  and  Christ  :  an  abyss  to  be  overleaped  by  faith  or 
explained  by  fact,  174.  The  historic  fact  is  the  change  in 
the  relations  of  God  to  man  dating  from  the  life  of  Jesus,  175. 
The  rise  of  the  Church  a  fact  without  parallel,  a  crisis  repeated 
in  the  lives  of  Christians,  175.  But  it  is  really  a  continuation 
of  the  life  of  the  Founder,  175.  That  inspiration  has  never 
wholly  died  down,  176,  In  this  no  rejection  of  historic 
methods,  since  history  shows  periods  of  crisis  and  climax, 
e.g.  the  sixth  century  b.c.  and  the  sixteenth  a.d.,  179.  Such 
periods  really  led  up  to  by  events,  179.  But  the  appeal  to 
history  not  conclusive  apart  from  experience  which  explains 
it,  180.  The  eternal  Christ  revealed  in  the  historic  Jesus,  182. 
Jesus-worship  natural  and  innocent,  but  is  undermined  by 
criticism,  though  the  historic  Jesus  unique,  183,  In  the 
Synoptists  traces  of  humanity  obvious  :  but  the  Spirit  of 
God  behind  the  humanity,  184. 

IV.  The  Eternal  Christ 

Gradual  revelation  to  men  of  the  eternal  Christ,  carried  on  by 
the  Church,  185.  The  movement  “  back  to  Jesus  ”  justified, 
but  the  object  of  the  Church’s  worship  really  the  eternal 
Christ,  186.  To  divide  the  life  of  Christ,  and  interpolate  a 
human  period,  is  making  time  a  condition  of  the  eternal,  187. 
It  gives  us  what  may  be  termed  Arian  views,  187.  Rather 
we  should  regard  the  human  Jesus  as  a  revelation  in  space 
and  time  of  the  eternal  Christ,  the  human  side  of  God,  186. 
The  conditions  temporary  ;  the  knowledge  imperfect ;  but 
the  will  on  the  side  of  God,  188.  The  nature  of  Christ’s 
divinity  the  matter  of  incessant  speculation  in  Greek  circles  : 
to  moderns  the  doctrines  of  the  Incarnation  and  the  Atone¬ 
ment  more  important,  189.  These 'have  a  meaning  for  all 
time,  but  the  literal  or  Pauline  view  overthrown  by  criticism, 
189.  They  are  processes  carried  on  by  the  Church,  191. 
It  is  only  the  divine,  however  incarnate,  which  should  be  the 
object  of  worship,  192.  The  facts  of  history  and  experience 
on  which  Christologies  are  based  are  perpetual,  but  the 
rendering  of  those  Christologies  in  words  can  only  be 
temporary,  193.  Nevertheless,  creeds  have  great  value  and 
use,  so  long  as  they  are  regarded  rather  as  historic  documents 
than  as  infallible,  196. 


CONTENTS 


XXI 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

The  beliefs  of  the  Church  dominated  by  Greek  metaphysics  ;  but 
may  have  a  basis  in  experience,  199.  Alternative  doctrines 
of  the  Eternal  Christ  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  200.  The  latter 
arose  among  the  Jews,  and  was  accepted  by  Christianity,  200. 
Records  of  the  descent  of  the  Spirit  hardly  historic,  201. 
In  the  Gospels  the  doctrine  dwelt  on  by  Christ  himself,  201. 
Early  Christianity  confines  it  to  the  Society,  202.  But 
imparted  to  individual  members,  203.  In  the  Jewish 
Scriptures  every  good  gift  regarded  as  given  by  the  Spirit 
of  God,  including  bodily  prowess,  203.  Darwin  at  one  time 
accepted  this,  but  later  gave  it  up,  205.  The  Spirit  works  in 
the  unconscious  in  man  ;  as  does  also  the  Spirit  of  evil,  207. 
Difficulty  of  discriminating,  207.  Tests  suggested  in  the 
Didachi,  208.  The  emotions  belong  to  the  unconscious  and 
so  are  especially  liable  to  influence  of  Spirit,  209.  Results 
•  sometimes  abnormal.  But  the  Spirit  works  also  in  conscious 
thought  and  will :  so  the  Jewish  prophets,  210.  The  Jews 
regarded  wisdom  as  a  special  gift  of  the  Spirit,  i.e.  a  sane 
view  of  realities,  21 1.  This  notable  in  many  Christian 
saints,  212.  The  Spirit  acts  in  two  ways — by  inculcating 
love  of  truth,  and  helping  in  the  suppression  of  personal 
prejudice,  213.  St  Paul  teaches  that  the  intellect  is  open 
to  divine  inspiration,  214.  This  tradition  continued  in  the 
Church ;  examples  Clement  and  Augustine,  214.  This 
point  of  view  much  eclipsed  in  modern  times,  215.  The 
need  of  intelligence  divinely  directed  great  among  us, 
especially  in  social  matters,  217.  We  have  to  translate  into 
modern  conditions  the  impulses  of  early  Christianity.  Un¬ 
regulated  emotion  may  produce  fatal  aberrations,  217. 
St  Paul  sometimes  depreciates  what  he  calls  mundane 
wisdom,  because  he  felt  that  it  needed  baptism  into  Christ, 
219.  With  Christianity  came  a  great  spiritual  crisis  :  hence 
the  working  of  the  Spirit  in  all  spheres  greatly  changed,  220. 
The  question  of  the  personality  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  223.  The 
dogma  of  the  Trinity  a  scholastic  summary  of  doctrines  in 
themselves  valuable.  Jeremy  Taylor,  224. 

CHAPTER  X 

PERSONAL  IMMORTALITY  AND  ETERNAL 

LIFE 

I.  Primitive  Views 

We  know  what  becomes  of  the  body  at  death,  225.  The  crux  is 
the  survival  of  personality,  as  to  which  men  feel  strongly,  226. 


xxii  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


According  to  primitive  religion,  man  continued  his 
ordinary  life  in  a  ghostly  state,  227.  The  wizard  or  witch 
was  in  touch  with  the  departed,  228.  When  such  beliefs 
died  down,  their  place  was  taken  by  spiritism,  228.  Thought 
transference  is  proved,  and  that  mediums  have  access  to 
mines  of  knowledge  of  doubtful  origin,  228.  Spiritism 
accepts  the  monadic  view,  that  after  death  men  survive  with 
their  present  traits  unchanged,  228.  But  in  fact  mediums 
differ  as  to  the  source  of  their  knowledge,  whether  the  departed, 
or  earth-spirits,  or  demons,  229.  All  lofty  religions  have  made 
war  on  witchcraft,  230.  Personal  survival  is  hard  to  imagine 
without  continued  memory,  and  without  a  body  of  some 
kind,  230.  For  the  notion  of  a  non-material  body,  India 
substitutes  rebirth  in  other  lives,  human  or  animal,  231. 


II.  Modern  Popular  Views 

The  result  of  the  war  has  been  to  revive  primitive  conceptions, 
232.  The  Roman  Church  believes  in  purgatory,  232. 
Protestants  often  believe  in  heaven  and  hell  as  alternatives  : 
but  usually  the  latter  is  put  out  of  sight,  with  great  in¬ 
consistency,  233.  No  one  has  been  able  to  suggest  any 
kind  of  individual  future  life  which  would  not  in  time  become 
intolerable,  234.  Many  people  think  little  on  the  subject,  235. 


III.  Earliest  Christian  Views 

Christians  greatly  value  reported  sayings  of  the  Saviour,  236. 
One  of  these,  as  to  the  woman  who  had  seven  husbands,  and 
then  died,  bears  on  the  present  subject,  237.  Transitory  in 
it  is  the  expectation  of  a  coming  catastrophe,  238.  Perpetual 
meaning  attaches  to  the  saying,  “  They  marry  not,  nor  are 
given  in  marriage.”  Also  to  the  saying,  ”  God  is  not  the  God 
of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living,”  239. 

IV.  Philosophic  Views 

Analogies  from  the  life  of  nature,  240.  Seeds ;  the  caddis-fly,  240. 
Sleep  and  anaesthetics,  241.  The  argument  from  the  moral 
nature :  imperfect  equation  of  goodness  and  happiness  in 
the  world,  242.  The  activist  point  of  view,  243.  Belief  in 
a  future  life  based  not  on  argument,  but  on  an  inner  urging, 

244.  It  has  tended  to  the  moralisation  and  energy  of  life, 

245.  Objections  of  modern  materialism,  247.  The  matter 
must  be  fought  out  in  life,  247.  The  belief  has  an  ultimate 
basis  in  the  sense  of  values.  Sub-conscious  respect  for  it,  248 
But  on  the  whole  philosophy  agnostic.  Need  of  a  self¬ 
surrender  to  the  divine  will,  250. 


CONTENTS 


XXlll 


V.  Eternal  Life 

Another  way  of  immortality  shown  by  Christian  mysticism,  251. 
Thus  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  we  have  the  saying,  “  If  a  man 
keep  my  word,  he  shall  never  see  death.”  Eternal  life  not 
mere  continued  existence,  252.  It  is  a  merging  of  self  in  a 
higher  life,  253.  This  state  has  been  almost  attained  by 
some.  St  Paul  speaks  of  life  in  the  spirit  as  eternal,  253. 
And  the  Fourth  Evangelist  speaks  of  eternal  life  as  the 
result  of  knowledge  of  God  and  communion  with  him,  254. 
Whereas  continued  existence  is  only  a  matter  of  faith, 
eternal  life  may  be  a  matter  of  experience,  on  which  is  built 
confidence  in  the  future,  255.  The  approach  to  the  divine 
a  gradual  process  :  the  ideas  of  God  slowly  mould  the 
world,  256.  The  Christian  Church  carries  on  the  life  of 
Christ.  Such  questions  as  the  possible  failure  of  life  on  our 
globe  need  not  distress  us  in  view  of  infinite  possibilities  of 
spirit,  257. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH 

I.  The  Collective  Consciousness  of  the  Church 

The  question  of  the  subordination  of  the  individual  to  the  Society, 
259.  Modern  views  of  a  group-mind,  which  is  more  than 
the  minds  of  individuals,  260.  But  it  exists  only  in  organised 
societies,  such  as  nations,  societies,  and  Churches,  261.  The 
Jewish  theocracy  and  its  parallels,  263.  The  rise  of  voluntary 
societies  in  the  decay  of  the  states,  264.  These  were 
attached  to  deities  whom  the  Christians  held  to  be  evil 
spirits,  264.  St  Paul  sometimes  speaks  thus,  but  sometimes 
holds  with  the  Jews  that  they  were  nonentities,  266. 
Difficult  to  estimate  the  moral  value  of  such  cults  as 
Mithraism,  267.  Christianity  like  these  societies  in  being 
attached  to  an  unseen  ruler  and  in  having  sacred  books  and 
rites,  268.  The  inspiration  of  Christianity  gradually  took 
form  in  creed,  ritual,  and  organisation,  269.  See  Exploratio 
Evangelica.  The  Church  thus  regarded  is  an  unity,|though 
at  present  an  invisible  unity,  273. 

II.  The  Communion  of  Saints 

The  Church  includes  departed  members.  A  natural  tendency  to 
invoke  their  aid,  274.  This  is  certainly  not  a  mere  perversion, 
275.  The  Saints  of  Catholicism,  historically  investigated, 
prove  unsatisfactory,  especially  because  miracles  were 
required  for  canonisation,  276.  Abuses  of  relic- worship,  277. 
Also  the  virtues  looked  for  in  saints  were  not  really  the 


xxiv  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


highest,  278.  Auguste  Comte’s  attempt  at  a  new  hagiology, 
279.  Psychologically,  saint -worship  has  often  been  an  aid 
to  religion,  279.  The  votaries  appeal  to  experience,  and  they 
are  justified  so  long  as  they  do  not  go  outside  experience,  280. 
But  when  we  apply  tests  they  usually  fail.  There  is  first  the 
test  of  history,  which  is  very  destructive ;  then  the  test  of 
fruits,  on  which  the  common  sense  of  man  insists,  282.  The 
Church  carries  on  the  life  and  obedience  of  Christ,  283.  If 
communion  with  saints  is  communion,  not  with  their  past 
life,  but  with  the  divine  in  them,  it  may  be  justified,  284. 
The  influence  of  the  good  passes  on  in  many  ways  to  their 
successors,  285.  The  Christian  eucharist  is  really  an  act  of 
union  not  only  with  God  and  Christ,  but  with  all  Christians, 
living  and  dead,  286. 


PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF 
CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


CHAPTER  I 

CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 

I 

All  the  great  religions  of  the  world,  and  all  the 

great  religious  teachers  of  the  world,  have  set 

before  themselves  the  object  of  shortening  the 

distance  between  God  and  man,  of  showing  ways 

in  which  man  can  learn  to  know  and  to  love  God, 

and  to  do  the  will  of  God  in  the  world.  They 

maintain  that  it  is  possible  for  man  to  come  into 

the  presence  of  God  and  to  feel  in  his  heart  the 

working  of  Divine  power.  There  is  no  litany  of 

approach  to  God  so  great  and  admirable  as  the 

Hebrew  Psalms  ;  and  by  inspired  wisdom  the 

Christian  Church  has  from  the  first  made  them  a 

prominent  feature  of  her  daily  services.  Such 

Psalms  as  the  22nd,  the  42nd,  the  139th,  must 

always  remain  the  most  intimate  utterances  of 

the  religious  spirit.  The  Founder  of  Christianity 

teaches  emphatically  that  God  is  not  only  ready 

to  allow  the  approaches  of  man,  but  that  God  is 

1 


2  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


anxious  to  meet  man,  cares  for  him  with  a 
Father’s  care,  and  rejoices  when  he  turns  from 
evil  ways  to  seek  the  face  of  God. 

But  though  Christianity  teaches  that  the  way 
from  man  to  God  is  open,  yet  it  declares  that  for 
all  except  a  few  happily  constituted  souls  it  is 
not  easy.  There  are  all  sorts  of  hindrances  in 
the  way,  from  the  attraction  of  the  obvious,  the 
weakness  of  human  nature,  the  deep  tendencies 
to  evil  which  torment  all  men  and  often  master 
nearly  all.  Jesus  taught  that  the  gate  into  the 
way  of  life  was  narrow,  and  the  way  itself  hard  to 
walk  in.  St  Paul  represents  life  as  a  long  struggle, 
wherein  the  approach  to  God  is  hindered  by  a 
thousand  temptations  and  troubles.  The  Fourth 
Evangelist  speaks  of  faith  in  God  as  appealing  to 
the  children  of  the  light,  and  yet  being  ever 
thwarted  and  eclipsed  by  surrounding  darkness 
and  evil. 

Hence  the  great  object  of  religion  is  to  make 
easier  the  approach  to  God,  to  set  forth  some 
way  by  following  which  man  may  approach  his 
Maker,  to  point  to  a  mediator  between  God  and 
man,  who  is  inspired  from  above,  and  yet  is 
easier  of  approach  than  the  Most  High.  The 
more  a  man  is  given  to  intellectual  contempla¬ 
tion  and  spiritual  search  for  the  divine,  the  more 
lofty  and  sublime  appears  the  being  of  God. 
And  in  the  daily  strivings  and  sufferings  of  men, 
in  the  daily  struggle  between  good  and  evil,  they 


CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


3 


need  the  aid  of  something  nearer  and  more 
accessible  than  the  ultimate  deity  of  whom  they 
feel,  with  the  Psalmist,  and  with  the  author  of 
Job,  that  he  is  high  and  inscrutable.  They 
repeat  the  words :  “  Such  knowledge  is  too 

wonderful  for  me  :  it  is  high,  I  cannot  attain 
unto  it.” 

But  God  in  many  ways  has  condescended  to 
man.  At  intervals  in  history  he  has  sent  prophets 
and  inspired  teachers  to  make  the  way  towards 
himself  easier.  Both  in  the  ancient  and  the 
modern  world  he  has  thrown  out  lines  of  com¬ 
munication  to  which  men  can  attach  themselves. 
And  in  Jesus  Christ  he  has  made  to  men  a  supreme 
revelation  of  himself.  As  the  writer  to  the 
Hebrews  says,  God  who  in  past  times  spoke  by 
the  prophets  of  Israel  (and  we  may  add  by  the 
philosophers  of  Greece),  finally  spoke  to  men  by 
his  Son,  and  made  permanent  in  the  world  the 
results  of  the  message  sent  through  him.  That 
message  has  been  growing  ever  since.  Ever 
since,  fresh  sides  of  the  original  inspiration  of 
Christianity  have  been  coming  to  light,  fresh 
communications  on  the  way  opened  by  the  life 
of  Jesus  Christ  have  been  coming  into  the 
world. 

There  have  been  working  side  by  side  the 
material  and  the  spiritual  sides  of  revelation. 
The  Church,  with  its  fixed  ordinances,  its  rites 
and  sacraments,  has  kept  up  a  visible  road  to 


4  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


God  ;  and  the  mass  of  mankind  have  in  all  ages 
gained  thereby  help  and  energy.  The  spiritual 
road  has  been  travelled  by  the  few,  the  more  con¬ 
templative  natures,  who  have  found,  not  only, 
or  even  chiefly,  in  Church  ordinances  the  influence 
of  the  Divine  Spirit,  but  have  attained  to  a 
spiritual  communion  with  such  revelations  or 
emanations  of  God  as  have  come  within  their 
horizon. 

In  the  Christian  religion  as  set  forth  in  the 
New  Testament  the  incarnation  or  the  revela¬ 
tion  of  God  in  Christ  is  set  forth  in  two  ways.  In 
the  Synoptic  Gospels  generally  God  is  spoken  of 
as  drawing  near  to  men  by  giving  to  men  the 
Divine  Spirit.  How  much  more  shall  your 
Father  in  heaven  give  the  Holy  Spirit  to  them 
that  ask  him.”  By  the  Spirit,  God  awakens 
enthusiasm  in  men  ;  by  the  Spirit  he  bestows  on 
them  courage  and  wisdom  and  the  love  of  what 
is  good.  The  same  line  is  carried  on  in  the  early 
chapters  of  Acts  ;  but  the  writer  of  Acts,  who 
attaches  great  value  to  the  physical  phenomena 
which  accompanied  the  preaching  of  the  Word, 
loves  to  dwell  on  the  abnormal  phenomena 
which  usually  accompany  the  preaching  of  a 
religious  revival,  ecstatic  utterances,  faith  healing, 
and  the  like.  These  especially  he  records  as  the 
results  of  the  bestowal  on  men  of  the  Divine 
Spirit.  And  as  he  is  our  only  source  for  the 
earliest  history  of  the  Church,  readers  of  the 


CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


5 


New  Testament  are  apt  to  let  these  obvious 
phenomena  figure  too  prominently  in  their  minds. 
St  Paul  in  his  letters,  with  eminent  balance  of 
mind  and  sanity,  introduces  into  the  picture  a 
better  perspective  ;  and  though  he  does  not  dis¬ 
approve  of  speaking  with  tongues  and  wonders 
of  healing,  puts  far  before  and  above  them  the 
higher  gifts  of  the  Spirit,  wisdom,  faith,  brotherly 
love. 

But  St  Paul  often  speaks  in  another  way  of  the 
higher  manifestations  of  the  Spirit,  regarding 
them  as  the  fruit  of  the  life  of  Christ  in  the  heart 
of  the  disciple.  For  him  Christ  is  united  with 
each  of  his  followers  so  intimately  that  the  whole 
Church  or  body  of  believers  is  one  in  the  mystic 
personality  of  Christ.  He  speaks  of  believers  as 
dead  to  the  world,  and  made  alive  by  an  inward 
power  flowing  into  them  from  the  exalted  Christ. 
He  goes  so  far  as  to  say,  in  his  own  case,  that  he 
has  ceased  to  be,  and  that  Christ  lives  in  his 
mortal  body. 

St  Paul  does  not  draw  any  distinction  which 
can  be  formulated  between  God  and  the  Spirit  of 
God,  Christ  and  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  the  Spirit  of 
God  and  the  Spirit  of  Christ.  His  mind  is  not 
at  all  metaphysical,  but  in  the  highest  degree 
practical ;  and  in  speaking  of  spiritual  experience 
he  throws  his  description  of  it  sometimes  into 
one  form  and  sometimes  into  another,  without 
caring  whether  these  various  ways  of  expression 


6  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


are  self-consistent  or  not.  In  the  language  of 
Matthew  Arnold,  he  writes  in  a  literary  way, 
and  those  who  try  to  take  his  utterances  as 
science,  and  to  construct  with  them  an  arch  of 
dogma,  are  completely  baffled.  He  knew  that 
his  inspiration  came  from  God  ;  he  knew  that  it 
was  a  continuation  of  the  inspiration  of  the 
great  prophets  of  Israel ;  and  he  knew  that 
it  was  closely  related  to  the  life  and  the  death 
of  Jesus.  But  he  had  no  definite  scheme  of 
theology ;  and  phrases  like  those  of  the 
Athanasian  Creed  would  have  conveyed  to  him 
little  meaning. 

The  Ephesian  follower  of  St  Paul,  who  wrote 
the  Fourth  Gospel,  carries  on  both  the  lines  of 
interpretation.  In  the  wonderful  discourses 
which  occupy  his  last  chapters,  he  speaks  at  one 
time  of  the  inspiration  of  Christians  as  a  result  of 
the  indwelling  of  Christ,  returned  after  death 
to  his  Church  ;  at  another  time  he  regards  this 
same  inspiration  as  the  fruit  of  the  inward  work¬ 
ing  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  whom  Jesus  Christ 
sends  to  guide,  to  instruct,  and  to  encourage  his 
followers. 

St  Paul  has  a  definite  scheme  of  soteriology,  of 
the  way  in  which  sinners  are  redeemed  and  justi¬ 
fied  before  God,  a  scheme  which  was  further 
developed  by  the  great  doctors  of  the  Church,  by 
Augustine,  Anselm,  Thomas  Aquinas,  and  the 
great  reformers  of  the  sixteenth  century.  But 


CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


7 


he  has  no  scheme  of  theology,  of  the  doctrine  of 
the  being  and  attributes  of  God.  The  Fourth 
Evangelist,  on  the  other  hand,  dwells  less  on 
soteriology.  But  living  in  the  Greek  atmosphere 
of  Ephesus  he  could  not  be  content  without  some 
attempt  at  a  rational  theology,  though  he  never 
developed  it  beyond  the  rudiments.  In  the  first 
verses  of  his  Gospel  he  identifies  Christ  with  that 
Divine  Wisdom  or  Reason  of  which  thinkers  in 
the  last  centuries  before  our  era  had  frequently 
spoken.  The  Jews  had  regarded  the  Divine 
Spirit  as  an  afflatus  or  breath  of  life,  with  which 
the  spirits  of  inspired  men  were  filled,  and  which 
had  enabled  them  to  work  wonders  in  the  world. 
But  the  Greeks  sought  for  wisdom  ;  and  in  the 
Jewish  Apocrypha  under  their  influence  the 
Wisdom  of  God  is  the  great  power  which  ordered 
the  world,  and  set  it  going  in  the  paths  of  pro¬ 
gress,  and  which  breathes  into  good  men  alike 
virtue  and  sagacity.  But  the  Logos  doctrine 
which  the  evangelist  states  in  his  preface,  he 
does  not  work  out  in  the  body  of  his  Gospel  : 
only  here  and  there,  as  in  the  discourse  to  Nico- 
demus,  he  represents  Jesus  as  imparting  to  men 
a  higher  wisdom.  But  it  has  sometimes  occurred 
that  a  striking  use  of  a  word  has  modified  the 
course  of  history  ;  and  so  it  came  about  in  this 
instance.  A  series  of  Greek  theologians,  Justin, 
Origen,  Athanasius,  and  others,  starting  from  the 
phrase  logos,  worked  out  a  scheme  of  theology. 


8  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


And  finally  they  formed  it  into  a  Creed,  to  be 
accepted  by  all  Christians  under  pain  of  expulsion 
from  the  Society. 

The  Jewish  Church  never  had  a  creed  beyond 
the  unity  of  God  ;  nor  has  any  Semitic  race  felt 
the  necessity  for  a  detailed  scheme  of  intellectual 
propositions  to  enshrine  its  religion.  The  creed 
of  Islam  is  comprised  in  one  short  sentence, 
which  affirms  the  unity  of  God  and  the  inspiration 
of  Mohammed.  The  idea  of  a  longer  creed  came 
from  the  Greeks,  and  not  from  their  religious 
societies  ;  neither  in  the  religion  of  Olympus,  nor 
among  the  mystic  sects  of  later  Greece  was  there 
anything  of  the  kind.  But  the  sects  of  phil¬ 
osophers  who  divided  among  them  the  heritage 
of  Socrates  and  Plato  found  it  necessary,  in  their 
discussions,  to  state  exactly  what  views  of  the 
nature  of  God,  mankind,  and  the  world  they  stood 
for.  So  the  world  of  thought  was  broken  up  into 
warring  sects  or  cliques,  and  each  regarded  the 
others  as  living  in  a  mist  of  error  and  delusion. 
And  this  spirit  of  sect  passed,  through  the  agency 
of  Christians  who  had  been  philosophers,  such  as 
Justin  and  Clement  of  Alexandria,  into  the  fabric 
of  the  rising  Church.  And  so  the  earliest  Chris¬ 
tian  Creed,  which  we  find  in  the  baptismal  con¬ 
fession  of  the  Ethiopian  eunuch,  “  I  believe  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God,”  gradually  grew 
and  developed  into  the  great  profession  of  belief 
formulated  at  Nicaea  and  Chalcedon. 


CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


9 


In  our  days  there  are  still  philosophers  who 
think  that  they  and  their  friends  alone  have 
found  the  true  and  rational  explanation  of  the 
universe.  And  so  long  as  they  are  not  too 
exclusive,  there  is  no  need  to  object  to  this. 
Speculative  thought  is  natural  to  some  minds. 
No  doubt  it  will  go  on  in  the  future  as  in  the  past, 
just  as  poetry  will  go  on ;  and  many  subtle 
minds  will  find  in  it  their  highest  satisfaction. 
The  perpetual  stream  of  Gifford  Lectures  shows 
this  very  clearly.  And  almost  all  thinking  men 
will  find  in  speculation  at  some  time  in  their  lives 
the  fulfilment  of  a  great  need.  But  I  think  that 
modern  tendencies  of  thought  will  make  such 
speculation  less  usual  with  the  strongest  intelli¬ 
gences  than  it  has  been  in  the  past.  The  system 
of  Hegel  is  a  sort  of  high-water  mark,  which  few 
can  pass.  A  study  of  the  history  of  philosophy, 
and  an  attempt  to  map  out  the  realm  of  thought 
is  now,  even  if  the  results  be  very  inconclusive, 
one  of  the  best  gymnastics  of  the  mind.  Anyone 
who  is  familiar  with  the  results  of  philosophic 
teaching  in  the  Scotch  universities,  or  at  Oxford 
and  Cambridge,  especially  if  such  teaching  deal 
largely  with  the  works  of  Plato  and  Aristotle, 
will  realise  its  great  value  in  the  training  of  the 
intelligence.  But  to  ordinary  men,  the  great 
majority  of  the  intelligent  and  educated,  specula¬ 
tive  philosophy  is  out  of  court ;  either  it  does  not 
interest  them,  or  they  regard  it  as  a  mere  intel- 


10  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


lectual  exercise.  They  think  that  the  great  lights 
of  philosophy  were  partly  right  and  partly 
wrong  ;  and  that  it  is  not  worth  the  while  of 
those  who  do  not  make  a  profession  of  philosophy 
to  go  far  into  the  subject. 

But  while  an  easy  scepticism  occupies  men’s 
minds  in  the  matter  of  philosophy,  the  organised 
Churches  of  Christendom  have  accepted  Creeds 
authoritatively  set  forth  by  Councils  as  expres¬ 
sions  of  eternal  and  objective  truth ;  and  they 
compel,  at  all  events,  those  who  take  active  service 
in  them  to  subscribe  such  creeds.  And  meantime 
the  whole  character  of  our  intellectual  surround¬ 
ings  has  so  completely  changed,  that  no  one  save 
a  professed  scholar,  and  even  professed  scholars 
very  imperfectly,  can  understand  what  was  in 
the  minds  of  those  who  drew  up  the  Creeds,  or 
what  their  clauses  were  intended  to  convey.  The 
minds  of  the  good  Churchmen  who,  Sunday  after 
Sunday,  repeat  these  Creeds  are  hopelessly  out 
of  touch  with  their  original  meaning. 

When  an  average  man  hears  that  ‘‘  the  Son  is 
of  one  substance  with  the  Father,”  knowing 
nothing  of  the  elaborate  metaphysical  subtleties  as 
to  substance^  he  thinks  primarily  of  some  material 
thing ;  but  as  the  memorable  phrase  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  “  God  is  Spirit,”  ^  comes  into  his 
mind,  that  mind  relapses  into  vacuity.  Yet  if 
his  neighbour  refuses  to  repeat  the  phrase  of  the 

^  Not  a  spirit,  as  in  the  A.V. 


CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


11 


Creed,  he  sets  him  down  as  a  heretic,  probably  a 
Unitarian,  and  thanks  God  that  himself  is  not 
such.  In  reality  he  may  well  be  further  from 
orthodoxy  than  this  same  neighbour.  Hymns 
Ancient  and  Modern  are  full  of  various  heresies  ; 
some  of  them  are  almost  pagan.  Many  an 
English  Churchman  is  really  a  ditheist.  Many 
a  Roman  Catholic  is  a  tritheist,  adding  the 
Virgin  Mary  to  God  and  Christ,  or  even  a 
polytheist.  These  men  may  be  perfectly  good 
Christians,  and  members  of  the  spiritual  body  of 
Christ ;  but  they  have  never  adequately  turned 
their  intellectual  faculties  towards  the  theory  of 
their  religion. 

Yet  right  and  true  thinking,  in  matters  of 
religion,  is  important ;  I  do  not  say  as  important 
as  right  action  or  right  feeling,  but  yet  important. 
A  man  should  have  a  reason  for  the  hope  that  is 
in  him  ;  for  if  he  has  not,  he  is  liable  at  any 
moment  to  be  thrust  by  a  sudden  misfortune  or 
a  wave  of  disbelief  from  his  anchorage,  and  to 
drift  into  pessimism  and  despair.  “  He  that 
wills  to  be  safe,  must  thus  think  of  the  Trinity,” 
is  a  phrase  which  seems  to  most  people  an  in¬ 
tolerable  piece  of  dogmatism.  Yet  in  a  sense  it 
is  true.  Unless  a  man  has  found  a  view  of  God 
and  eternal  life  which  fits  in  with  his  knowledge 
of  material  things  and  with  the  duties  of  every 
day,  he  is  certainly  not  in  a  state  of  safety.  He 
may  by  the  force  of  custom,  or  out  of  respect  to 


12  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


the  opinion  of  his  neighbours,  live  a  virtuous  life 
under  ordinary  circumstances.  But  how  if  he  be 
suddenly  thrust  out  of  that  course  of  life,  and 
obliged  to  fall  back  on  first  principles,  as  so  many 
were  compelled  to  do  in  the  time  of  the  war  ? 
It  becomes,  therefore,  important  to  question, 
on  the  one  side  the  classical  documents  of  the 
Christian  faith,  and  on  the  other  side  the  observed 
facts  of  religious  psychology,  in  the  endeavour  to 
discover  what  are  the  true  grounds  of  faith  for 
a  modern  Christian. 

II 

If  the  grounds  of  Christianity  are  to  be  investi¬ 
gated,  they  must  be  investigated  methodically, 
that  is  to  say,  scientifically.  We  have  to  investi¬ 
gate  three  fields  of  research  ;  the  visible  material 
world,  the  nature  of  man,  that  is,  psychology, 
and  history. 

(1)  The  investigation  of  nature  can  hardly  be 
of  primary  importance  to  us  in  this  connection, 
unless  we  are  content  with  materialism,  and 
resolved  to  set  aside  all  that  eludes  physical  tests 
and  measurements.  The  philosophers  of  Ionia 
started  in  this  direction ;  Democritus  and 
Epicurus  carried  on  their  line,  and  it  has  never 
wanted  advocates  down  to  the  days  of  Haeckel. 
Yet  many  of  the  great  physical  and  biological 
discoveries  of  recent  years  have  so  greatly 
changed  our  outlook  upon  nature,  that  the  mere 


CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


13 


phrase  of  the  creed  that  God  is  the  creator  of 
all  things,  needs  unmeasured  amplification  and 
refinement.  The  theory  of  evolution,  recent  dis¬ 
covery  in  the  analysis  of  matter,  and,  last  of  all, 
the  extension  of  the  theory  of  relativity  to  the 
study  of  nature,  have  greatly  altered  our  concep¬ 
tion  of  the  relation  of  God  to  the  world.  And  at 
every  turn  we  find  it  possible  to  draw  from  the 
study  of  the  world  analogies  which  enlighten  us 
as  to  the  nature  and  action  of  the  invisible. 

(2)  There  were  great  historians  in  the  ancient 
world.  In  their  way  Thucydides  and  Polybius 
have  never  been  surpassed.  Early  Christianity 
substituted  the  Jewish  view  of  history  for  the 
Greek ;  a  remarkable  retrogression ;  and  for 
ages  all  history  lost  its  scientific  character  under 
the  influence  of  ethical  and  religious  motives. 
Not  until,  within  the  memory  of  some  still  living, 
the  idea  of  evolution  was  imported  into  historic 
studies,  did  history  set  out  on  a  new  and  scientific 
career.  And  even  now,  in  the  minds  of  the  great 
majority  of  people,  when  the  history  of  Chris¬ 
tianity  is  in  question,  all  historic  method  is 
thrown  aside,  and  the  historic  views  of  the  first 
Christians  are  accepted  as  of  divine  inspiration. 
But  year  by  year  this  latter  attitude  of  mind  is 
receding,  and  the  more  scientific  treatment  of 
the  sacred  books  and  the  early  history  of  the 
Christian  Church  is  becoming  more  usual ;  at 
least  in  all  places  of  higher  education. 


14  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


In  the  present  work  very  little  is  said  in  regard 
to  Christian  history.  It  is  a  subject  which  I  have 
already  treated,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  in 
published  works,  such  as  Exploratio  Evangelica 
and  A  Historic  View  of  the  New  Testament,  And 
I  have  little  that  is  fresh  to  add.  It  is  true  that 
with  the  great  majority  of  English  writers  on 
the  subject,  the  acceptance  of  historic  method  is 
but  grudging  and  partial.  But  it  is  slowly  but 
surely  making  its  way.  And  its  main  principles 
are  regarded  as  beyond  dispute  in  all  schools  of 
scientific  history.  There  is  no  need  to  attack  a 
cause  which  is  gradually  dying.  And  it  is  the 
less  desirable  to  do  so,  because  a  sudden  and 
violent  inrush  of  historic  method  would,  beyond 
doubt,  bring  in  danger  to  the  religious  views  on 
which  the  conduct  of  most  Christians  is  founded. 
A  gradual  infiltration  of  the  method  is  really 
preferable. 

(3)  But  by  far  the  most  important,  in  regard  to 
religious  creed,  of  all  the  fundamental  changes  of 
mentality,  is  that  which  consists  in  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  methods  of  experience  and  research 
in  the  investigation  of  the  faculties  of  man,  and 
their  substitution  for  the  logical  and  a  priori  pro¬ 
cedure  of  Greek  metaphysics.  Philosophy  of  a 
kind  must  always  remain  ;  but  there  is  a  vast 
difference  between  philosophy  which  starts  from 
some  a  priori  thesis  and  argues  down  to  the  facts 
of  mind  and  thought,  of  God  and  man,  and 


CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


15 


philosophy  which  is  based  upon  psychology, 
which  takes  its  facts  thence  and  tries  to  make  out 
what  those  facts  imply.  Here  the  greatest  recent 
discovery  is  undoubtedly  that  of  the  unconscious 
element  in  the  human  mind.  And  with  that  dis¬ 
covery  goes  the  perception  that  the  active  and 
conative  faculties  of  man  are  the  most  important 
part  of  him,  and  the  cognitive  and  reflective 
faculties  far  less  closely  connected  with  his  ulti¬ 
mate  being.  William  James  especially,  in  his 
vigorous  and  incisive  writings,  has  emphasised 
the  truth  of  this  view. 

The  results  of  this  new  attention  to  the  psy¬ 
chology  of  experience  have  been  far-reaching. 
Even  in  the  matter  of  medicine  it  has  completely 
changed  the  treatment  of  such  diseases  as  are 
not  the  result  of  infection  or  of  mere  physical 
disturbance.  Faith-healing  and  suggestion  are  no 
longer  regarded  as  appropriate  only  to  quacks  ; 
but  are  used  in  great  hospitals,  and  with  results 
which  no  reasonable  man  can  dispute.  In  all 
education  a  psychological  foundation,  which 
analyses  the  faculties  of  children  and  adults,  and 
ascertains  by  induction  how  to  make  the  best 
use  of  them,  has  become  necessary.  Naturally, 
the  discarding  of  tradition,  and  the  over-valua¬ 
tion  of  limited  experience  may  often  lead  us 
astray.  The  Montessori  system,  for  example, 
lays,  in  my  opinion,  far  too  little  stress  on  the 
need  for  training  the  will  as  well  as  the  intelli- 


16  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


gence.  Mistakes  must  needs  be  made ;  but 
they  must  be  corrected,  not  by  a  mere  return  to 
traditional  ways,  but  by  a  wider  and  a  more 
carefully  analysed  experience. 

It  is  the  same  in  religion.  Here  also  an 
analysis  of  experience  must  be  the  ground  of  any 
rational  theology.  If  any  communion  between 
God  and  man  be  possible,  it  must  be  the  subject 
of  investigation  ;  and  the  true  in  regard  to  it 
must  be  separated  from  the  false.  And  we  may 
take  this  course  without  any  fear.  For  if  such 
communication  were  not  a  real  thing,  a  belief  in 
it  could  not  have  persisted  with  such  indomitable 
energy  through  all  ages.  It  has,  however,  been 
always  and  everywhere  overlaid  with  a  mass  of 
false  or  at  least  disputable  theory,  from  the 
burden  of  which  it  must  be  freed.  But  the 
burden  must  be  lifted  with  the  utmost  care  and 
reverence.  The  wheat  and  the  tares  grow 
together,  and  we  have  to  be  very  careful  not  to 
root  up  both  together. 

These  vast  changes  in  the  mental  horizon  of 
mankind  oblige  us  to  look  at  the  historic  creeds 
of  Christendom  in  quite  a  new  light.  It  does  not 
necessarily  follow  that  those  creeds  are  outworn 
and  useless.  They  do  undoubtedly  reflect,  not 
merely  the  mentality  of  the  early  Church,  but 
also  its  practical  necessities.  Indeed,  the  view 
just  stated  of  the  supremacy  of  the  active  and 
practical  over  the  theoretic  faculties  of  man  at 


CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


17 


once  suggests  that  the  Creeds  were  not  in  reality, 
though  they  might  be  in  appearance,  mere 
logical  and  a  priori  constructions,  but  were  a 
reflection  in  the  world  of  logical  thought  of 
religious  feeling  and  experience.  Hence  a  mere 
attack  on  them  from  the  side  of  logic  and  science 
might  entirely  miss  what  is  of  real  value  in  them. 
They  have  not  to  be  exploded,  but  to  be  accounted 
for. 

Any  modern  criticism  of  them,  to  be  satis¬ 
factory,  must  start  from  an  analysis  of  human 
nature,  and  especially  from  an  investigation  of 
the  nature  of  spirit  and  of  personality. 

In  all  our  perceptions  clearness  of  vision  and 
energy  of  emotion  are  almost  in  inverse  propor¬ 
tion  to  one  another.  When  we  feel  strongly  on 
any  subject,  to  learn  the  exact  truth  about  it  is 
repellent  to  us,  is  often  hateful.  Yet  emotion  is 
like  a  climbing  plant  which  may  without  injury 
be  transferred  from  one  prop  to  another,  and 
which  will  learn  to  cling  as  closely  to  the  new 
support  as  to  the  old.  History  is  full  of  examples 
of  such  transference,  and  I  need  not  pause  to  cite 
them.  There  have  been  strong  emotional  pre¬ 
judices  which  have  militated  against  the  recep¬ 
tion  of  evidence  in  regard  to  the  nature  of  the 
soul.  But,  as  William  James  has  put  it,i  “  Let 
empiricism  once  become  associated  with  religion, 
as  hitherto  through  some  strange  misunderstand- 

^  A  Pluralistic  Universe,  p.  314. 


2 


18  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


ings  it  has  been  associated  with  irreligion,  and 
I  believe  that  a  new  era  of  religion,  as  well  as  of 
philosophy,  will  be  ready  to  begin.”  ‘‘  I  fully 
believe  that  such  an  empiricism  is  a  more  natural 
ally  than  dialectics  ever  were,  or  can  be,  of  the 
religious  life.”  By  pursuing  this  method  of 
empiricism,  or  reasonable  investigation,  James 
produced  an  epoch-making  work  on  the  Varieties 
of  Religious  Experience,  treating  the  phenomena 
of  the  religious  life  not  as  parts  of  this  or  that 
religious  teaching,  but  as  phases  of  the  activities 
of  the  soul  in  the  presence  of  spiritual  realities. 
And  by  pursuing  this  method  I  think  it  possible 
to  present  a  view  of  God  and  the  future  life 
which  will  not,  certainly,  correspond  with  all  our 
wishes  and  emotions,  but  which  may  lie  before 
us  as  a  grand  range  of  facts  and  possibilities. 

No  one,  by  searching,  can  find  out  God.  And 
no  one,  by  the  mere  study  of  the  facts  of  experi¬ 
ence,  can  work  out  for  himself  a  satisfactory 
religion.  Religion,  like  power  and  happiness, 
comes  from  within,  or  rather  depends  on  man’s 
relations  to  the  spiritual  source  of  life.  But, 
until  a  man  has  revised  the  creed  of  Christianity 
in  the  light  of  history  and  psychology,  he  will  not 
be  able  to  defend  it  in  the  forum  of  discussion, 
nor  to  discern  in  it  what  has  been  temporary, 
and  is  ready  to  fall  away,  and  what  is  of  permanent 
or  even  of  perpetual  validity.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  though  the  Creeds  have  been  kept  unaltered 


CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


19 


in  words,  they  have  changed  their  real  meaning 
constantly  with  a  changing  intellectual  outlook. 
And  the  great  question  now  is  what  they  mean 
to  us.  How  can  the  jewels  be  reset  so  as  to  suit 
modern  modes  of  thought  ? 


CHAPTER  II 


THE  NATURE  OF  PERSONALITY 

I 

Fundamental  to  our  whole  inquiry  is  the  subject 
of  personality.  And  personality  is  exactly  one 
of  those  matters  which  seem  at  first  sight  simple, 
yet  soon  lead  us  beyond  our  depth  in  the  ocean  of 
thought.  Like  the  kindred  subject  of  free-will, 
it  has  exercised  and  will  exercise  the  utmost 
faculties  of  man,  without  admitting  of  a  final  and 
objective  solution. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  common  sense  and 
daily  life,  we  can  scarcely  do  better  than  accept 
the  statement  of  Dr  Sanday  in  his  little  work. 
Personality  in  Christ  and  in  Ourselves,^  The 
inner  self,  he  says,  is  the  principle  of  unity  and 
continuity  in  a  man’s  life,  the  vehicle  of  reflective 
consciousness  ;  and  at  the  same  time  it  possesses 
a  power  of  initiative  and  control.  Thus  it  is  at 
once  a  reflective  and  an  active  power,  a  centre 
on  which  outward  impressions  converge,  and  a 
source  of  force  and  action  in  the  world. 

Here,  however,  we  stop  short  at  the  obvious, 
and  do  not  try  to  fathom  what  Tennyson  calls 

1  P.  34. 

20 


THE  NATURE  OF  PERSONALITY 


21 


the  abyssmal  depths  of  personality.”  What  is 
this  personality,  whence  comes  it,  and  whither 
does  it  go  ?  ‘‘  From  the  great  deep  to  the  great 

deep  it  goes  ”  ;  and  we  have  no  means  of  stopping 
it,  analysing  or  examining  it.  In  what  relation 
does  it  stand  to  the  world  to  spirit  and  to  God  ? 
The  Greeks  spoke  of  it  as  a  spark  of  divine  fire, 
which  comes  from  God  and  returns  to  God. 
This,  of  course,  is  but  a  metaphor,  an  image. 
But  perhaps  by  metaphor  and  image  we  may 
gain  more  light  on  the  subject  than  by  more 
formal  analysis.  It  is,  however,  maintained  by 
excellent  authorities  that  the  psychological  re¬ 
searches  of  modern  times  have  put  us  in  a  more 
favourable  position  for  considering  the  whole 
question.  Our  chief  advantage  lies  in  the  dis¬ 
covery-— for  it  is  no  mere  theory — made  both  by 
physiologists  and  psychologists,  that  alike  in  the 
case  of  men  and  animals  the  active  and  conative 
faculties  are  primary  and  basal :  and  the  intel¬ 
lectual  faculties,  whatever  their  nobility,  are 
later  and  secondary  ;  and  are  always  in  a  great 
degree  dependent  for  stimulus  and  direction  on 
the  active  powers.  This  view  I  must  assume  as 
established. 

The  philosophy  or  the  psychology  of  knowledge 
from  this  point  of  view  is  simple.  Each  human 
being  is  a  centre  of  force,  a  nucleus  whence  force 
is  always  issuing.  The  discovery  of  radium,  a 
substance  which  constantly  gives  out  energy. 


22  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


affecting  everything  around  it,  but  not  perceptibly 
diminishing  in  substance  or  in  force,  gives  us  an 
analogy,  which,  if  not  pressed  too  far,  is  helpful. 
To  a  particle  of  radium  we  may  compare  each 
human  spirit,  always  working  outwards,  and  as 
it  works  finding  resistances,  out  of  which  it 
frames  for  itself  an  universe,  or  rather,  through 
which  it  discovers  for  itself  the  universe  which 
exists  without  it,  and  apart  from  its  activity. 

These  last  two  ways  of  regarding  the  matter 
are,  from  the  purely  intellectual  point  of  view, 
almost  equivalent.  But  from  the  practical  and 
active  point  of  view  they  differ  as  hell  and 
heaven.  For  the  great  practical  problem  of 
man’s  life  is  to  escape  from  the  merely  subjective 
and  personal  view  of  the  world  into  one  which  is 
real  and  objective.  The  search  for  reality  has  in 
all  ages  been  the  great  problem  of  philosophy, 
and  the  great  thinkers  have  made  the  transit, 
some  in  one  fashion  and  some  in  another  ;  but 
in  one  way  or  another  all  have  had  to  make  it,  or 
else  to  be  confined  for  ever  to  the  merely  sub¬ 
jective  in  knowledge,  and  to  sterility  and  in¬ 
effectiveness  in  action.  To  me  the  whole  question 
of  reality  and  objectivity  appears,  as  in  some 
measure  it  appeared  to  Kant,  to  be  one  not 
of  intellectual  judgment  but  of  practical  voli¬ 
tion.  It  is  on  this  side  that  the  works  of  the 
great  intellectualists,  from  Spinoza  to  Lord 
Haldane,  seem  to  me  deficient  and  unsatis- 


THE  NATURE  OF  PERSONALITY 


23 


factory,  or,  rather,  to  require  supplement  and 
completion. 

Our  experience  of  life  has  to  do  not  with  what 
is  self-evolved  or  imaginary,  but  with  what  is 
real  and  serious,  and  on  the  way  in  which  we 
deal  with  it  depends  not  only  the  value  of  our 
philosophy,  but  the  character  of  our  lives,  our 
efficiency  in  the  world,  in  a  word,  the  saving  of 
our  souls. 

Taking,  then,  experience  as  real  and  objective, 
we  proceed  to  work  outwards  in  touch  with  it. 
From  resistances  of  a  physical  kind  we  discover 
the  facts  and  laws  of  the  material  world.  From 
resistances  of  the  human  medium  we  discover 
the  world  of  other  selves,  amid  whom  we  learn 
to  live  in  friendship  or  enmity.  From  inner  and 
spiritual  resistances  we  learn  the  nature  of  the 
spiritual  world,  in  which  God  is  supreme. 

Apart  from  our  active  energy  we  might  live 
amid  these  surroundings  and  not  be  aware  of 
them  ;  at  most,  they  would  affect  us  as  a  meaning¬ 
less  kaleidoscopic  show.  But  activity,  energy, 
purpose,  explore  the  possibilities,  and  reveal  to 
us  an  external  world,  a  world  of  orderly  resist¬ 
ances,  which  limits  us  in  every  direction. 

The  same  experience  of  resistance  is  the  means 
whereby  we  build  up  the  knowledge  of  ourselves. 
To  perception,  which  has  to  do  with  what  is 
without  us,  corresponds  sensation,  which  shows  us 
what  is  within  us,  We  become  conscious,  first 


24  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


of  our  wills,  then  of  our  bodies,  of  our  intelleetual 
faculties,  of  our  moral  natures,  all  of  which 
together  make  us  up  as  individuals. 

The  experience  of  resistance  reveals  to  us  our 
bodies,  which  are  in  the  main  subject  to  our 
wills,  though  it  requires  constant  exercise  to  keep 
them  so.  It  reveals  to  us  our  minds,  and  the 
ways  of  thought  which  we  cannot  alter  or  escape. 
It  is  constantly  showing  us  emotions  of  pleasure 
or  pain,  love  or  anger,  expectation  or  despair, 
which  often  come  upon  us  as  a  surprise,  and  it 
shows  us  our  own  wills  as  definitely  working  in 
one  direction  or  another,  tow^ards  good  or  evil, 
towards  success  or  failure,  in  the  line  of  duty  or 
in  the  line  of  self-indulgence,  and  the  same  ex¬ 
perience  of  resistance  in  the  world  of  spirit  of 
which  we  are  members  reveals  to  us  great 
spiritual  powers  which  are  ever  working  on  us 
from  without  and  stimulating  us  from  within. 

II 

In  a  powerful  and  suggestive  work  on  Social 
Psychology,  Professor  M^Dougall  sets  forth  seven 
instincts  as  primary  and  original  in  man.  They 
are  the  instincts  of  flight,  repulsion,  curiosity, 
pugnacity,  self-abasement,  self-assertion,  and  the 
parental  instinct.  I  do  not  regard  this  analysis 
as  altogether  happy.  It  is  particularly  unsatis¬ 
factory  to  begin  with  flight  and  fear  and  repulsion, 


THE  NATURE  OF  PERSONALITY 


25 


that  is,  on  the  weak  and  poor  side  of  human 
nature,  its  negative  rather  than  its  positive 
aspect.  And  it  does  not  seem  to  me  that  man 
possesses  a  primitive  instinct  of  self-abasement, 
which  is  only  an  absence  of  the  instinct  of  self- 
assertion.  I  think  the  analysis  might  have  been 
carried  further  back.  The  greatest  primitive 
instinct  in  man  seems  to  me  to  be  self-assertion, 
or  a  desire  for  the  furtherance  of  life.  Tennyson 
was  wise  when  he  wrote  : 

“  ’Tis  life,  not  death,  for  which  we  pant. 

More  life  and  fuller  that  we  want.” 

And  this  most  primitive  of  all  instincts,  which 
one  finds  in  the  mollusc  as  well  as  in  the  phil¬ 
osopher,  divides  into  two  branches,  the  desire  of 
individual  life  and  the  desire  of  propagation. 
Out  of  these  two  desires  all  others  arise  in  the 
process  of  evolution.  But  the  course  of  desire  is 
different  according  to  the  sphere  in  which  it 
operates.  In  the  life  of  the  material  body  it  acts 
simply  by  resisting  disease  and  injury  and  decay, 
appropriating  to  itself  the  material  surroundings 
of  the  body,  urging  to  sexual  action.  In  the 
social  life  it  acts  primitively  in  war  and  strife, 
and  the  appropriation  of  women.  But  under  the 
influence  of  higher  spiritual  powers,  man  learns 
social  conduct  first  in  the  family  or  tribe,  then  in 
the  community.  In  the  dawn  of  the  spiritual  life 
man  tries  to  secure  and  to  turn  to  his  own  pur- 


26  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


poses  the  help  of  the  surrounding  spiritual  power, 
by  the  help  of  magie  and  spell.  He  eomes  into 
contact  with  that  power  in  pure  selfishness  ;  but 
he  learns  by  degrees  to  subordinate  himself  to  it, 
he  is  vanquished  by  its  force  and  goodness ;  and 
magic  gives  way  by  degrees  to  religion,  self- 
assertion  is  replaced  by  love  of  what  is  better 
than  himself.  All  his  instincts  become  more 
refined,  more  moral,  more  intellectual. 

Man  has  lower  and  higher  possibilities.  Since 
he  is  a  denizen  of  the  world  of  sense,  it  is  natural 
that  the  exercise  of  those  powers  which  tend  to 
the  vigour  of  the  individual  and  the  carrying  on 
of  the  race  should  produce  in  him  a  glow  of 
pleasure.  A  moderate  indulgence  of  those  powers 
makes  up  a  great  part  of  the  happiness  of  life. 
Many  men  rise  no  higher.  But  to  every  one  who 
cherishes  ideals,  a  mere  sensuous  existence,  a 
porcine  satisfaction  with  life,  soon  wears  off  its 
freshness.  It  fails  to  satisfy  his  higher  nature. 
A  truer  and  a  far  more  durable  satisfaction  comes 
from  the  love  of  God  and  man,  from  helping  one’s 
neighbours,  and  labouring  for  the  improvement 
of  life  by  transfusing  it  with  the  divine  ideas 
which  are  revealed  within. 

While  the  comparison  of  a  human  spirit  to  a 
particle  of  radium  is  from  the  practical  point  of 
view  helpful  and  suggestive,  it  requires  at  the 
same  time  careful  guarding ;  it  is  a  comparison, 
not  an  explanation.  It  does  not  follow  because 


THE  NATURE  OF  PERSONALITY 


27 


there  is  some  likeness  between  the  spirit  of  a  man 
and  a  particle  of  radium  that  there  is  likeness  in 
all  respects.  The  similarity  consists  in  the  con¬ 
stant  outward  working  of  both  in  the  world  of 
experience. 

An  obvious  point  of  dissimilarity  is  that,  while 
one  particle  of  radium  is  just  like  another  in  its 
working,  human  beings  differ  one  from  another  in 
every  way.  One  personality  is  vigorous,  another 
inert ;  one  is  naturally  prone  to  love  and  sym¬ 
pathy,  another  by  nature  self-contained  ;  one  is 
active  and  emotional,  another  contemplative  and 
intellectual.  We  notice  all  these  differences  in 
others  and  in  ourselves  ;  but  their  origin  is  most 
obscure.  Sometimes  they  appear  to  be  an  in¬ 
heritance  from  parents  ;  sometimes  they  seem  to 
go  back  to  remoter  ancestors ;  sometimes  they  look 
very  much  like  a  new  departure,  whence  and  how 
originated  we  cannot  in  the  least  discover.  And 
in  the  course  of  living  they  change,  under  the  stress 
of  circumstances  or  under  the  influence  of  others. 

Another  great  difference  between  the  action  of 
radium  and  human  action  is  that  the  former  takes 
place  uniformly  and  in  all  directions.  But  human 
force,  when  it  has  once,  so  to  speak,  felt  its  sur¬ 
roundings,  has  the  power  to  act  in  any  direction 
it  pleases.  By  the  power  of  self-determination, 
which  exists  in  its  most  intimate  nature,  it  directs 
the  stream  of  energy  in  some  directions  rather 
than  others,  it  inhibits  some  kinds  of  action  and 


28  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


encourages  others,  thus  limiting  and  controlling 
its  action  upon  the  world,  and  by  so  doing  form¬ 
ing  in  itself  a  definite  individuality. 

Whether  a  man  can  exert  physical  force  beyond 
the  limits  of  his  bodily  frame  is  as  yet  matter  of 
controversy.  Such  experiments  as  those  of  Dr 
Maxwell  in  Paris,  and  those  of  Mr  Crawford  at 
Belfast,  seem  to  indicate  such  possibilities.  But 
it  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  take  up  this  subject ; 
and  it  is  premature,  for  there  now  exists  at  Paris 
an  International  Metapsychic  Institute,  recognised 
by  the  French  Government,  and  controlled  by  a 
Council  on  which  sit  some  of  the  greatest  authori¬ 
ties  in  France,  England,  and  Italy.  It  has  a 
completely  equipped  laboratory,  and  is  set  up  in 
order  to  test  in  a  thoroughly  scientific  way  all 
the  psychical  phenomena  attending  spiritualist 
seances.^ 

When  we  turn  to  the  facts  of  mind  and  spirit, 
we  are  in  a  clearer  light.  For  the  phenomena  of 
mesmerism,  of  suggestion,  and,  above  all,  of  tele¬ 
pathy,  show  that  the  old  notion  that  man  is  a 
self-contained  and  impervious  unit  is  a  delusion. 

As  regards  telepathy,  I  may  content  myself 
with  the  verdict  of  Dr  W.  M‘Dougall,  who 
writes  ^  :  ‘‘I  cannot  attempt  to  present  here  the 
evidence  for  the  reality  of  telepathy.  It  must 
suffice  to  say  that  it  is  of  such  a  nature  as  to 

^  See  the  Modern  Churchman^  xii.  p.  645, 

^  Body  and  Mind,  p.  349. 


THE  NATURE  OF  PERSONALITY  29 

compel  the  assent  of  any  competent  person  who 
studies  it  impartially.”  And  the  fact  of  tele¬ 
pathy  is  fatal  to  two  views — first,  to  any  mere 
materialist  explanation  of  the  universe,  and 
seeond,  to  what  one  may  call  the  merely  atomic 
or  monadic  theory  of  personality. 

It  is  usual  and  natural  to  think  of  our  personali¬ 
ties  just  as  we  think  of  our  bodies,  as  self-con¬ 
tained  units.  But  this  view  is  largely  illusive. 
Men’s  souls  are  in  a  sense  individual,  capable  of 
character  and  affections,  of  growth  and  de¬ 
generacy,  but  they  are  not  cut  off  one  from 
another  by  rigid  and  impassable  barriers. 

It  is  by  eontaet  with  the  visible  and  physical 
world  that  our  bodies  grow  and  take  form, 
through  food  and  exercise  and  disease.  It  is 
through  eontaet  with  our  fellow-men  and  soeiety 
that  we  form  character.  It  is  by  our  relations 
with,  and  love  for,  the  spiritual  world  that  we 
develop  an  inner  being  and  attain  to  eternal  life. 
The  dietum  of  Kant,  that  there  is  nothing  good 
in  the  world  but  a  good  will,  is  true  so  far  as 
individuals  are  concerned  ;  but  there  is  also  in 
the  spiritual  world  a  great  current  of  goodness 
which  may  flow  into  individual  lives  ;  and  there 
are  also  evil  currents  which  bear  men  away  to 
destruction  and  perdition. 

The  course  of  medical  discovery  in  recent  times, 
and  particularly  the  experiences  of  the  Great 
War,  have  put  in  a  clearer  and  stronger  light  than 


30  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


ever  before,  the  predominance  of  the  inner  over 
the  outer,  the  superiority  of  will  and  spirit  over 
flesh.  It  is  now  known  to  what  an  extent  sug¬ 
gestion  can  cure  disease,  and  direct  the  nerves 
and  the  blood.  Faith-healing  has  been  known 
from  the  beginning  of  history.  There  is  much  of 
it  in  primitive  sorcery.  The  shrines  of  ^Escu- 
lapius  in  Greece  were  places  where  healing  took 
place  far  more  often  by  mental  suggestion  than 
by  bodily  prescriptions.  In  the  early  time  of  the 
Christian  faith,  as  every  one  is  aware,  cures  by 
faith-healing,  which  were  regarded  as  miraculous, 
were  of  constant  occurrence.  And  so  on  through 
the  Middle  Ages.  But  unfortunately  the  facts  of 
suggestion  and  faith-healing  had  become  in¬ 
extricably  mixed  up  with  theories  as  to  the  power 
which  wrought  such  cures  :  and  those  who  had 
experience  of  the  healing  passed  on  at  once  to 
believe  in  the  saint  or  the  relics  which  were  its 
occasion.  And  so  at  the  Reformation,  when  the 
veneration  of  saints  and  of  relics  was  thrown  aside 
by  the  Reformers,  faith-healing  was  thrown  aside 
with  them,  and  was  regarded,  at  all  events  in 
northern  countries,  as  a  mere  form  of  imposture. 
In  the  last  century,  such  cures  as  those  worked  at 
Lourdes  led  observers  to  see  that  there  were 
realities  underneath  erroneous  historic  and 
psychical  views  in  the  miracles  of  the  Roman 
Church.  And  now  the  great  success  of  Christian 
Scientists  and  of  faith-healers  of  every  kind  has 


THE  NATURE  OF  PERSONALITY 


31 


put  it  beyond  question  that  it  was  rash  to  reject 
the  facts  of  suggestion  merely  because  they  were 
closely  connected  with  unnecessary  or  unsatis¬ 
factory  theories  as  to  the  source  whence  came  the 
power  of  the  healers.  In  fact,  at  present  many 
of  those  who  practise  healing  by  suggestion 
openly  confess  that  they  do  not  understand  the 
source  of  the  powers  they  possess  ;  they  are  only 
conscious,  through  experience,  that  they  can 
exercise  those  powers.  Indeed,  the  prevalent 
view  now  seems  to  be  that  the  healers  can  only 
act  by  rousing  self-suggestion  in  the  mind  of  the 
person  to  be  healed. 

However  this  may  be,  and  whatever  may  be 
the  true  psychological  explanation  of  faith-heal¬ 
ing,  what  it  shows  beyond  doubt  or  cavil  is  the 
superiority  of  that  which  is  within  to  that  which 
is  without,  of  the  spirit  to  the  body.  For  this 
very  reason  the  great  medical  schools,  which 
always  have  a  strong  bias  towards  materialism, 
have  almost  invariably  disputed  the  value  of 
faith-healing  and  despised  those  who  practised 
it.  But  at  all  events  they  cannot  now  deny 
its  validity,  or  maintain  that  it  is  a  mere  im¬ 
posture. 

If  we  free  ourselves  from  the  natural  prejudice 
which  closely  connects  the  personality  with  the 
body,  and  if  we  realise  that  the  borders  of  per¬ 
sonality  are  not  rigidly  exclusive,  we  shall  have 
no  great  difficulty  in  accepting  the  view  that  it 


82  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


is  quite  legitimate  to  speak  of  personalities  which 
are  not  merely  individual,  the  personalities  of 
families,  of  groups,  and  of  states.  As  has  been 
pointed  out  by  the  writers  on  social  psychology, 
the  intellectual  and  moral  qualities  of  an  organised 
group  of  persons  is  not  the  mere  sum  of  those 
qualities  which  belong  to  the  individual  members 
of  the  group,  but  something  additional,  and  even 
something  different. 

It  requires  some  exercise  of  the  imagination 
fully  to  grasp  this  fact,  since  in  the  group  there 
is  no  subjective  consciousness  as  there  is  in  the 
individual ;  the  personality  of  the  group  cannot 
speak  with  an  audible  voice,  nor  be  rigidly  out¬ 
lined  against  the  background  of  the  surrounding 
society  ;  it  is  somewhat  like  the  mathematical 
formulae  which  cannot  be  objectively  presented 
to  the  mind,  but  can  only  be  discerned  in  work¬ 
ing  ;  but  nevertheless  it  is  a  definite  factor  in  the 
world,  of  which  every  man  of  action  and  every 
statesman  has  to  take  account.  In  some  societies 
of  animals  it  may  be  more  clearly  discerned ; 
every  one  can  see  that  the  hive  of  bees  and  the 
nest  of  ants  have  an  intelligence  and  a  character 
far  above  that  of  the  separate  bee  or  ant,  often, 
indeed,  provoking  our  astonishment.  Human 
societies  are  not,  in  the  present  state  of  the  world, 
thus  clearly  marked  out  and  closely  united.  But 
nevertheless  there  exists  in  every  society  and 
in  every  state  a  social  personality  which  can 


THE  NATURE  OF  PERSONALITY 


33 


impinge  upon,  and  often  eontrol,  the  tendencies 
of  the  members  of  the  group. 

In  quiet  and  peaceful  times  this  is  less  observ¬ 
able,  individualism  is  dominant,  and  the  common 
life  passes  into  the  background.  But  when  a 
time  of  stress  and  conflict  comes,  individuals  are 
not  merely  affected,  but  are  often  quite  borne 
away  by  the  pressure  of  the  common  life.  In 
1914  and  the  following  years  this  phenomenon 
was  insistent,  and  had  the  control  of  history. 
However  strongly  organised  the  personality  of 
an  individual  might  be,  he  could  then  scarcely 
ever  resist  the  force  of  a  self-asserting  national 
personality  ;  he  was  borne  away  by  it,  often  to 
enterprises  to  which  his  personal  bias  had  the 
strongest  antipathy. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  surface  of  self- 
consciousness,  which  seems  so  hard  and  smooth, 
covers  a  great  deal  of  illusion.  We  all  are  dis¬ 
posed  to  exaggerate  the  degree  of  our  free-will ; 
we  often  suppose  ourselves  to  be  acting  in  freedom 
when  we  are  not  really  free.  We  are  constantly 
mistaking  the  nature  of  the  motives  from  which 
we  act ;  supposing  them  to  be  higher  or  lower, 
or  at  all  events  different  from  those  which  really 
sway  us.  We  suppose  ourselves  to  act  after  full 
deliberation,  when  in  fact  some  ancestral  ten¬ 
dency  holds  us  in  an  iron  grip.  In  the  same  way, 
actions  which  we  suppose  to  be  purely  individual 

are  often  dictated  to  us  by  a  wider  group  con- 

3 


34  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


sciousness.  And  often  the  impulse  towards 
them  may  be  communicated  to  our  spirits  by 
spiritual  forces  which  are  independent  of  us,  and 
which  we  regard  as  external,  though  really  they 
are  within  us,  at  all  events  while  they  act.  No 
doubt  a  resolute  will  could  in  any  case  determine 
the  line  of  conduct,  and  shut  out  external  in¬ 
fluence.  But  we  are  not  made  that  way.  Our 
personalities  are  fought  over  by  a  multitude  of 
spiritual  forces,  ancestral,  surrounding,  and 
above  us  ;  and  the  most  that  we  can  do,  in 
ordinary  life,  is  to  help  the  influences  which  we 
respect  or  love,  and  hinder  those  which  we  dis¬ 
like.  Our  wills  are  ours,  no  doubt.  But  so  are 
our  bodies  ours.  And  as  the  body  may  be  pre¬ 
vented  from  free  action,  not  only  by  external 
forces,  but  also  from  the  peculiarities  of  our 
physical  frames,  just  so  the  freedom  of  the  will 
is  bounded  not  only  by  the  wills  of  others,  which 
may  dominate  us,  but  by  the  character  which 
has  been  formed  by  previous  action  of  the  will. 
There  is  an  inertia  arising  from  habit  of  life, 
which  it  may  require  a  strong  effort  to  conquer, 
or  which,  indeed,  cannot  be  conquered  at  all, 
save  by  power  furnished  from  without,  some 
spiritual  influence  coming  from  the  group  mind, 
or  from  the  supreme  Ruler  of  the  spiritual  world. 


CHAPTER  III 


PERSONALITY  AND  THE  UNCONSCIOUS 

The  greatest  and  most  essential  difference 
between  a  material  substance  like  radium  and 
the  human  spirit  is,  that  whereas  the  former — at 
least  so  far  as  we  can  discern — does  not  depend 
on  anything  beyond  and  outside  itself,  the  human 
spirit  is  not  an  independent  and  self-contained 
unit,  but  is  in  contact  with,  and  dependent  upon, 
an  unlimited  flow  of  power  and  energy,  by  the 
aid  of  which  it  can  perform  many  deeds  quite 
beyond  the  reach  of  its  natural  powers  ;  and  if  it 
be  cut  off  from  or  abandoned  by  that  power,  it 
dries  up  and  fails  like  a  pool  left  on  the  seashore 
by  the  retreating  sea.  A  man  can  welcome  the 
spiritual  influence,  by  opening  the  doors  of  his 
spirit ;  or  he  can  harden  himself  against  it ;  and 
that  is  the  difference  between  life  in  the  spirit 
and  life  in  the  flesh  and  the  self.  It  is  impossible 
to  maintain  that  this  stream  of  spiritual  influence 
is  always  on  the  side  of  good  :  sometimes,  as  the 
best  men  of  every  age  have  felt,  it  seems  rather 
to  draw  us  in  the  direction  of  evil ;  but  the  good 
in  it  infinitely  overbalances  the  evil.  And  history 
and  experience  show  that  the  only  way  to  a  good 

36 


36  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


existence,  the  path  which  leads  to  life,  lies 
through  harmony  with  that  great  stream  of 
spiritual  influence,  which  has  by  stages  led  men 
up  to  the  highest  points  attained  by  human 
societies  and  individuals.  In  the  history  of  the 
race,  as  we  know  it,  good  has  been  on  the  whole 
stronger  than  evil.  This  conviction  is  hard  to 
maintain  in  times  of  disappointment  and  spiritual 
dryness.  There  be  many  that  say,  “  Who  will 
show  us  any  good  ?  ”  But  the  individuals  and 
the  nations  which  fall  away  from  belief  in  the 
ultimate  dominance  of  the  good  are  condemned 
to  perish. 

I 

To  attempt  to  throw  light  upon  the  difficult 
questions  of  the  life  of  the  spirit  by  means  of 
comparisons  with  the  world  of  sense  may  always 
involve  some  peril.  For  an  analogy  must  always 
be  a  suggestion  rather  than  an  explanation  ;  and 
there  is  always  a  danger  that  those  who  appreciate 
the  analogy  may  strain  it  beyond  its  proper 
bounds.  But  it  is  much  less  risky  to  set  forth 
two  or  three  analogies  in  the  place  of  one  ;  for 
the  different  images  in  some  degree  cancel  one 
another,  and  their  suggestion  becomes  freer  from 
perversion. 

The  Founder  of  Christianity  was  wont  to  use 
physical  analogies  to  illuminate  the  life  of  the 
spirit.  And  he  takes  precisely  the  precaution 


PERSONALITY  AND  THE  UNCONSCIOUS  37 


which  I  have  mentioned  ;  he  does  not  work  out 
special  comparisons  in  detail,  but  briefly  men¬ 
tions  one  after  another,  so  that  light  may  glance 
on  the  subject  under  consideration  at  many 
angles.  He  speaks  of  the  phenomena  of  the 
weather,  of  sunrise  and  sunset,  of  the  way  in 
which  corn  grows  in  the  fields,  of  the  tending  of 
sheep,  of  the  search  for  treasure  ;  and  in  each 
case  directs  a  ray  of  light  on  the  great  and  com¬ 
plicated  matter  of  the  growth  of  spiritual  life  in 
the  individual  and  in  society.  The  procedure 
which  I  propose  to  adopt  may  therefore  claim 
the  highest  authority. 

The  personality  of  a  man,  in  relation  to  the 
world  of  spirit,  may  be  compared  to  one  of  those 
little  coral  islands  which  abound  in  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  It  has  been  built  up  by  the  lives  and 
deeds  of  thousands  of  ancestors  since  life  began 
on  our  planet.  They  toiled,  often  in  dark  places, 
but  each  left  by  energy  and  action  a  little  deposit 
which  helped  to  build  up  the  foundation  of  a 
life,  while  the  whole  construction  rested  on  the 
solid  ground.  The  coral  island  is  a  beautiful 
thing ;  it  gives  a  resting-place  to  trees  and  insects 
and  birds  ;  but  it  is  isolated  only  in  reference  to 
the  surface  of  the  sea  ;  with  the  solid  earth  it  is 
invisibly  continuous. 

Another  comparison  may  be  made  to  a  floating 
iceberg.^  Only  a  small  part  of  the  iceberg  is 
^  This  comparison  has  already  been  made  by  W.  James. 


38  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


visible  above  the  level  of  the  sea  ;  a  far  larger 
part  floats  beneath  and  sustains  what  is  visible. 
Sometimes,  as  the  iee  slowly  melts,  the  eentre  of 
gravity  of  the  mass  is  shifted,  and  quiekly  or 
slowly  it  rolls  over,  displaying  on  the  surface  a 
new  facet.  It  is  suggestive  to  compare  the  ice¬ 
berg  to  a  human  life,  with  clear-cut  form  on  the 
surface,  yet  largely  concealed  beneath  the  level 
of  consciousness,  and  liable  to  sudden  shiftings, 
the  cause  of  which  is  quite  invisible,  while  the 
results  are  conspicuous  and  often  startling,  as 
when  religious  conversion  takes  place. 

A  third,  even  better,  comparison  would  liken 
the  individual  life  to  a  narrow  inlet  of  the  sea, 
making  its  way  between  rocks  and  promontories 
into  the  solid  land.  From  the  rocky  surround¬ 
ings  it  takes  form  and  character,  and  gains  indi¬ 
viduality  ;  yet  never  for  a  moment  is  it  separated 
from  the  great  sea,  the  tides  and  storms  of  which 
daily  affect  it.  If  it  were  so  separated  it  would 
dry  up  and  disappear.  And  through  the  sea  it 
has  a  way  of  connection  with  all  other  gulfs  and 
inlets  ;  so  that  in  fact  a  stone  thrown  into,  or  a 
fish  leaping  in,  any  of  them,  will  produce  an 
effect,  of  course  quite  unobservable  and  infinite¬ 
simal,  upon  it. 

The  will  of  man  may  be  compared  to  a  sluice¬ 
gate  which  may  be  open  or  shut.  When  it  is 
shut,  he  cuts  himself  off,  so  far  as  he  can,  from 
the  influences  of  the  spiritual  life  about  him. 


PERSONALITY  AND  THE  UNCONSCIOUS  39 


influences  good  or  bad,  healthful  or  degrading. 
When  it  is  opened,  he  admits  these  influences. 

Such  comparisons,  which  it  would  be  easy  to 
multiply,  may  serve  to  give  a  slight  hint  of  the 
relation  of  the  individual  personality  to  the 
surrounding  world  of  spirit. 

When  we  speak  of  the  unconscious,  the  phrase 
requires  some  explanation.  It  really  means  that 
which  does  not  enter  into  the  personal  conscious¬ 
ness  or  self-consciousness  of  individuals.  It  by 
no  means  implies  that  what  we  call  in  reference 
to  ourselves  as  individuals  unconscious,  may  not 
be  in  a  different  and  even  a  higher  sense  conscious, 
though  not  conscious  in  us.  As  I  shall  try  to 
show  later  on,  the  very  important  element  in  the 
unconscious  which  is  divine  is  necessarily  recog¬ 
nised  by  us  as  in  a  high  sense  conscious.  And  I 
think  that  most  men  feel  in  their  relations  to  the 
unconscious  that  there  is  in  all  revelations  of  it, 
and  all  impulses  which  come  from  it,  something 
akin  to  consciousness.  It  is  an  unmapped  ocean  ; 
but  when  we  are  on  the  borders  of  it  and  try  to 
look  at  it,  we  find  that  it  has  currents  and  tides, 
waves  and  storms,  which  are  so  full  of  an  intense 
life  that  the  very  phrase,  the  unconscious,  appears 
very  inadequate. 

It  is  the  function  of  every  man,  as  a  conscious 
being,  belonging  at  once  to  the  visible  and  the 
invisible  world,  to  modify  the  visible  world  by 
means  of  the  ideas  which  he  takes  from  the 


40  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


invisible.  From  the  point  of  view  of  psychology 
man  possesses  intellect,  emotion,  and  will.  And 
to  those  three  faculties  three  kinds  of  working  in 
the  world  are  appropriate.  It  is  our  business  by 
our  intellects  to  find  out  the  exact  truth  of  things, 
to  discover  the  laws  of  working  of  nature  and  of 
human  society.  It  is  our  business  by  our  emotions 
to  love  what  is  beautiful,  to  find  happiness  in 
admiration  of  all  that  is  pure  and  lovely  in  nature 
and  in  man,  and  to  further  it  in  the  world  of 
sense.  It  is  our  business  by  the  will  to  set  our¬ 
selves  on  the  side  of  the  morally  good,  and  to 
work  for  its  victory  in  the  world.  By  such  action 
a  man  promotes  the  will  of  God  in  the  visible 
order  of  things  and  forms  within  him  at  the  same 
time  a  definite  character. 

If  the  analogies  by  which  I  have  tried  to  ex¬ 
plain  in  some  degree  the  nature  of  personality 
are  at  all  valid,  then  every  deed  done  in  the  world 
not  only  tends  to  mould  the  individual  personality 
of  the  doer,  but  also  has  an  effect  in  the  world  of 
spirit,  tends  to  lower  or  to  raise  its  tone  in  the 
matter  of  truth  of  beauty  or  of  goodness.  As  a 
stone  thrown  into  a  pond  sets  in  motion  circles 
on  the  surface  which  spread,  constantly  enlarging, 
to  the  edge  of  the  pond,  and  then  react  backwards, 
so  that  in  an  inconceivably  minute  degree  they 
go  on  acting  and  reacting  for  all  time;  so  any 
great  discovery  of  truth,  any  vision  of  ideal 
beauty,  any  noble  action,  works  in  the  world  of 


PERSONALITY  AND  THE  UNCONSCIOUS  41 


spirit  and  goes  on  working,  serving  in  some  in¬ 
finitely  minute  way  to  smooth  the  path  for  the 
future  diseovery  of  truth,  for  the  vision  of  other 
aspeets  of  beauty,  for  the  performance  of  noble 
deeds  in  the  times  that  follow.  Thus  man  may 
take  part  in  the  great  process  of  creation,  which 
began  before  the  earliest  geologic  times  and  goes 
on  into  the  infinite  future. 

Some  readers  may  think  that  I  am  using  the 
phrases  of  vague  pantheism,  that  I  am  not  clearly 
distinguishing  between  three  things  which  must 
not  be  confused,  the  unconscious,  the  spiritual, 
and  the  divine.  At  this  preliminary  stage  of 
our  investigation  my  language  is  necessarily 
vague.  But  as  we  proceed  it  will  become 
evident  that  I  am  quite  aware  of  the  danger  of 
confusing  these  things,  and  I  hope  to  show  that 
I  am  no  pantheist,  but  a  theist  of  a  very  different 
kind,  and,  indeed,  as  I  venture  to  believe,  a 
Christian  whose  beliefs  are  closer  to  those  of  the 
Founder  of  Christianity  and  his  immediate 
followers  than  those  which  are  commonly  current 
in  our  Churches.  The  unconscious  may  be  re¬ 
garded  as  a  sort  of  protoplasm,  out  of  which  the 
conscious  spirits  of  the  universe  issue,  human 
beings,  and  other  spirits,  and  even  the  Creative 
Spirit. 


42  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


II 

The  Sub-conscious  and  the  Super-conscious 

When  we  come  to  the  consideration  of  the 
relations  between  the  conscious  and  unconscious 
phases  of  man’s  life,  we  cannot  do  better  than 
accept  Mr  Myers’  comparison  of  the  conscious 
part  of  man’s  intelligence  to  a  solar  spectrum  as 
it  appears  to  the  human  eye  A  ‘‘  The  limits  of 
our  spectrum  do  not  inhere  in  the  sun  that 
shines,  but  in  the  eye  that  marks  his  shining. 
Beyond  each  end  of  that  prismatic  ribbon  are 
ether-waves  of  which  our  retina  takes  no  cog¬ 
nisance.  Beyond  the  red  end  come  waves  whose 
potency  we  still  recognise,  but  as  heat  and  not  as 
light.  Beyond  the  violet  end  are  waves  still 
more  mysterious,  whose  very  existence  man  for 
ages  never  suspected,  and  whose  intimate  potencies 
are  still  but  obscurely  known.  Even  thus,  I 
venture  to  affirm,  beyond  each  end  of  our  con¬ 
scious  spectrum  extends  a  range  of  faculty  and 
perception,  exceeding  the  known  range,  but  as 
yet  indistinctly  guessed.  The  artifices  of  the 
modern  physicist  have  extended  far  in  each 
direction  the  visible  spectrum  known  to  Newton. 
It  is  for  the  modern  psychologist  to  discover 
artifices  which  may  extend  in  each  direction  the 

1  Parts  of  the  following  pages  appeared  in  the  Hibbert 
Journal  for  1911, 


SUB-CONSCIOUS  AND  SUPER-CONSCIOUS  43 


conscious  spectrum  as  known  to  Plato  or  to 
Kant.”  1  “  The  range  of  our  subliminal  menta¬ 

tion  is  more  extended  than  the  range  of  our  supra¬ 
liminal.  At  one  end  of  the  scale  we  find  dreams, 
a  normal  subliminal  product,  but  of  less  practical 
value  than  any  form  of  sane  supraliminal  thought. 
At  the  other  end  of  the  scale  we  find  that  the 
rarest,  most  precious  knowledge  comes  to  us  from 
outside  the  ordinary  field,  through  eminently 
subliminal  processes.”  ^  I  cannot  but  think  that 
if  Mr  Myers  had  grasped  this  clue  with  more 
resolution,  and  followed  it  up  with  greater 
tenacity,  his  work  would  have  been  even  more 
valuable  than  it  is,  though,  of  course,  it  is  unjust 
to  judge  severely  the  work  of  the  first  explorer 
who  “  bursts  into  a  silent  sea.”  Other  writers 
on  psychical  phenomena  have  sometimes  not  even 
seen  the  need  of  a  scale  involving  higher  and 
lower.  This  distinction  is  in  fact  essential.  Our 
lower  nervous  centres  have  a  life  of  their  own,  by 
which  the  necessary  functions  of  the  body  are 
carried  on,  without  any  knowledge  on  our  part. 
And  through  our  lives,  as  we  form  habits,  and 
learn  to  do  unconsciously  what  we  at  first  did  by 
conscious  effort,  we  are,  so  to  speak,  organising 
the  unconscious,  handing  over  to  it  more  and 
more  of  our  ordinary  working  day  activities. 
But  for  what  we  give  up  in  this  way  we  may  or 
ought  to  make  compensation  by  the  opposite 
^  Human  Personality,  i.  17.  ^  Ibid.,  i.  72. 


44  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


process  :  by  bringing  into  consciousness  more  and 
more  of  that  which  is  above  us. 

The  conscious  personality  of  man  is  a  thing 
which  has  gradually,  through  an  unmeasured 
series  of  ages,  been  brought  about  by  a  slow 
organisation  of  the  unconseious  to  serve  the 
ethical  needs  of  the  raee.  As  we  look  down  the 
biological  scale  we  see  a  dawning  conseiousness, 
the  nature  of  which  we  cannot  fully  realise,  in 
the  animal  world.  Among  all  human  beings 
found  in  travel  or  read  of  in  history  it  is  fully 
formed  ;  so  that  its  growth  can  be  but  a  matter 
of  conjeeture  and  inferenee.  Perhaps  some  of 
the  most  interesting  studies  in  regard  to  it  may 
be  made  in  the  ease  of  such  creatures  as  the  ant 
and  the  bee,  which  have  developed  intelligence 
and  purpose,  by  means  of  their  peculiar  social 
organisations,  to  an  extent  far  beyond  what 
might  seem  to  belong  to  their  size  and  strueture. 
But  man  himself,  when  in  an  uneonscious  or 
semi-conscious  condition,  or  in  a  state  of  in¬ 
fancy,  can  give  us  much  information  as  to  the 
rise  and  the  nature  of  consciousness. 

Unless  we  grasp  and  hold  fast  the  notion  that 
there  is  a  higher  and  a  lower  in  the  unconscious 
life,  that  it  has  a  scale  whieh  is  at  bottom  ethical, 
psychical  phenomena  will  remain  for  us  a  con¬ 
fused  tangle,  or  may  be  the  means  of  leading  us 
astray. 

It  is  impossible  at  this  point  to  avoid  some 


SUB  CONSCIOUS  AND  SUPER-CONSCIOUS  45 


consideration  of  the  phenomena  of  hypnotism, 
for  by  them  the  question  of  the  relation  between 
the  conseious  and  the  unconscious  in  man  is 
raised  in  an  acute  and  inevitable  form.  And 
with  hypnotism  goes  that  spiritism  which  is  as  a 
system  built  upon  hypnotism.  Here,  unfortu¬ 
nately,  we  are  entering  ground  on  which  it  will  be 
impossible  altogether  to  avoid  controversy.  But 
I  will  confine  myself  to  a  statement  of  my  own 
views,  without  entering  into  the  innumerable 
cross  paths  which  lead  to  interminable  discussion. 
I  will  try  to  keep  fact  and  theory  as  far  as  possible 
apart. 

This  path  of  knowledge  was  opened  wider  by 
the  diseoveries  of  Mesmer,  who  was  the  first  to 
set  forth  in  a  striking  and  effective  way  the  direct 
power  of  a  mind  and  will  over  the  mind  and  will 
of  others.  To  whatever  unworthy  purposes  mes¬ 
merism  has  been  turned,  however  it  has  been 
mingled  with  imposture  and  the  love  of  money, 
it  was  yet  based  on  actual  facts  of  human  nature. 
Almost  every  great  scientific  invention  appears 
first  as  a  toy,  before  its  serious  use  is  discovered. 
It  was  by  a  kind  of  instinct  that  the  ruling  schools 
of  medicine,  in  their  traditional  materialism,  for 
a  long  while  refused  to  allow  that  there  was  in 
mesmerism,  or  the  hypnotism  which  has  taken  its 
place,  anything  save  fancy  and  imposture.  That 
phase  of  opposition  has,  however,  passed  away  ; 
no  one  capable  of  understanding  the  nature  of 


46  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


evidence  could  now  deny  that  hypnotism  has 
brought  to  light  unsuspected  powers  of  the  human 
spirit,  and  has  proved  how  large  a  part  of  our 
life  and  personality  never  comes  to  the  surface 
or  into  the  field  of  ordinary  observation.  And 
investigations  such  as  those  of  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research  have  carried  the  evidence 
further  and  brought  into  the  light  a  mass  of 
phenomena  which  are  not  necessarily  connected 
with  hypnotism,  yet  which  belong  to  the  uncon¬ 
scious  side  of  our  lives — dreams,  motor  auto¬ 
matisms,  trances,  ecstasy,  and  the  like — which 
must  be  taken  into  account  by  anyone  who  here¬ 
after  may  write  on  psychology. 

The  subject,  though  an  interesting,  is  scarcely 
an  alluring  one.  At  present  the  true  and  the 
false,  the  healthy  and  the  morbid,  the  moral  and 
the  immoral,  are  mingled  almost  inextricably  in 
the  writings  which  deal  with  the  more  obscure 
psychical  phenomena.  One  feels  in  reading  them 
that  one  is  in  a  land  where  barbarous  survivals 
are  mixed  up  with  lofty  aspirations,  where  witch¬ 
craft  is  scarcely  distinguished  from  religion,  and 
the  morbid  visions  of  the  hysteric  are  put  on  the 
same  level  as  the  sacred  inspirations  of  the 
prophet.  The  science  of  the  unconscious  is  yet 
in  its  infancy,  and  has  not  learned  to  know  its 
right  hand  from  its  left,  to  distinguish  between 
good  and  evil,  to  discern  between  fact  and  fancy. 
And  yet  one  sees  that  many  of  the  most  sacred 


SUB-CONSCIOUS  AND  SUPER-CONSCIOUS  47 


experiences  of  mankind  are  of  the  same  class  as 
the  more  repulsive  phenomena  of  hypnotism. 
They  resemble  them  as  good  wine  resembles 
vinegar,  or  a  sweet  fruit  a  poisonous  berry. 
Those  who  would  learn  anatomy  are  obliged  to 
make  very  unpleasant  dissections  of  dead  bodies. 
And  those  who  would  really  understand  the  facts 
of  the  higher  religions  cannot  afford  to  throw 
aside  phenomena  of  which  the  early  Christian 
Fathers  would  doubtless  have  said  that  they 
were  produced  by  demons  working  in  imitation 
of  the  angels  of  light. 

The  great  defect  and  danger  of  spiritism  is  its 
want  of  an  ethical  standard,  its  way  of  confusing 
the  higher  and  the  lower  in  its  revelation  of  the 
unconscious.  I  am  convinced  that  often  the 
higher  and  more  worthy  of  the  inspirations  which 
pass  into  the  world  pass  not  through  the  gate  of 
the  human  faculties  which  have  become  uncon¬ 
scious  as  man  has  become  more  civilised,  but  at ' 
the  other  end  of  the  scale,  through  the  gate  of 
human  character  and  personality  which  is  in 
touch  with  something  not  lower  but  higher  than 
itself.  It  is  not  that  which  civilised  man  has  in 
common  with  the  savage  that  can  serve  as  a 
connecting  link  between  man  and  God,  but 
rather  the  highest  parts  of  human  nature. 

Even  writers  like  Mr  Myers,  and  (in  a  less 
degree)  Professor  William  James,  seem  to  me  not 
sufficiently  to  distinguish  between  what  is  sub- 


48  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


conscious  and  what  is  super-conscious  in  men. 
It  is  true  that  from  the  merely  psychological  side 
it  is  not  easy  to  distinguish  these.  But  they  can 
be  distinguished  by  other  tests,  notably  that  of 
fruits.  And  they  must  be  kept  apart.  It  is  not 
easy  to  distinguish  logically  between  a  good 
picture  and  a  bad,  but  the  difference  is  really 
enormous.  It  is  not  easy  to  make  distinetion 
between  the  love  between  men  and  women  which 
is  merely  instinetive  and  that  whieh  is  the  basis 
of  all  the  higher  manliness  and  womanliness  ; 
but  the  distance  between  them  is  like  the  distanee 
between  heaven  and  hell. 

By  far  the  greater  part  of  the  phenomena  on 
which  the  spiritualists  pride  themselves  is  in 
relation  to  that  which  is  not  above  but  below 
the  level  of  conscious  life.  Some  of  the  lower 
forms  of  animal  life,  insects  especially,  have 
powers  which  seem  to  us  mysterious ;  their 
senses  are  open  to  impressions  which  we  cannot 
discern.  The  way,  for  example,  in  which  the 
male  and  female  of  rare  butterflies  contrive  to 
find  one  another  out  over  great  distanees  shows 
a  power,  possibly  of  scent,  of  which  we  can 
scarcely  form  a  notion.  The  senses  on  which 
wild  animals  depend  for  their  living  are  sharpened 
to  an  almost  supernatural  aeuteness.  The 
savage  will  find  his  way  through  a  forest  by 
minute  indieations  which  he  can  scarcely  explain 
to  a  civilised  man.  And  the  sensitively  organised 


SUB  CONSCIOUS  AND  SUPER-CONSCIOUS  49 


among  savages,  who  become  magicians  or 
medicine-men,  do  not  merely  live  upon  the 
ignorance  and  credulity  of  the  tribe,  but  appear 
to  possess  second  sight  and  other  means  of  in¬ 
formation  besides  those  of  ordinary  sense. 
Among  ourselves  second  sight  and  magic  still 
linger  in  the  more  backward  parts  of  the  country. 
The  possession  of  these  faculties  belongs  not  to 
the  best  and  most  ethical  of  the  race,  but  to  the 
most  primitive  elements  among  the  people. 

It  is  doubtless  out  of  more  vague  and  general 
faculties  that  the  senses  of  the  civilised  man  have 
been  gradually  formed  in  the  long  course  of  ages 
by  the  stress  of  a  life  becoming  ever  more  con¬ 
scious  and  personal.  Man  has  given  up  some  of 
the  possibilities  which  once  lay  before  him,  in 
order  to  reach  a  higher  level  upon  the  whole. 
The  praeter-usual  faculties  of  the  sensitives  are  in 
fact  a  survival  from  a  past  level  of  being,  or  a 
reversion  to  it.  In  America  they  are  probably 
one  of  nature’s  reactions  from  a  too  ordinary  and 
prosaic  level  of  life,  a  life  without  the  passion, 
the  poetry,  the  imagination,  which  are  refined 
and  spiritualised  forms  of  the  abnormal  faculties 
of  the  savage. 

Thus  I  certainly  cannot  agree  with  Mr  Myers 

when  he  speaks  of  trance  and  ecstasy  as  the 

highest  form  of  communion  between  man  and 

the  unconscious.  While  we  must  allow  that 

occasionally  spiritual  truth  and  lofty  impulse 

4 


50  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


have  come  to  man  by  way  of  trance,  yet  ecstasy 
is  a  phenomenon  infinitely  more  familiar  to  the 
medicine-man  of  the  savage,  and  to  the  ministers 
of  the  lower  religions,  than  to  man  in  his  higher 
forms.  It  is  a  rank  shoot,  such  as  are  the  suckers 
which  spring  from  the  roots  of  rose  trees  when 
the  vitality  of  the  tree  does  not  flow  properly  into 
its  branches.  Such  shoots  need  cutting  and  graft¬ 
ing  before  they  can  produce  fair  flowers.  So  races 
of  men  when  oppressed  by  a  too  materialist  and 
humdrum  civilisation  have  a  tendency  to  hark 
back  to  the  ways  of  more  keenly  alive,  though 
less  cultivated  ancestors. 

It  is  no  doubt  true  that  some  of  the  highest 
teaching  and  of  the  noblest  deeds  of  the  past  have 
been  the  outcome  of  trance  and  ecstasy.  St  Paul 
was  caught  up  into  the  third  heaven,  and  heard 
words  which  he  will  not  repeat.  Socrates  would 
stand  rooted  to  the  ground,  and  insensible  to  all 
that  was  going  on  about  him,  and  the  divine 
voice  by  which  he  guided  his  conduct  would 
at  such  times  be  heard  by  him.  Joan  of  Arc 
implicitly  followed  the  guidance  of  voices  which 
she  heard  in  her  trances.  So  the  saints  of  the 
earlier,  and  the  religious  leaders  of  the  later. 
Church  have  frequently  been  in  the  habit  of 
falling  into  states  of  trance,  and  have  in  those 
states  received  great  messages  for  mankind. 

But  these  divine  communications  have  been 
few  in  comparison.  And  they  have  constantly 


SUB-CONSCIOUS  AND  SUPER-CONSCIOUS  51 


become  rarer  as  man  has  grown  more  rational 
and  more  fully  conscious.  The  progress  of  civil¬ 
isation  may  have  deprived  us  of  some  things  we 
are  unwilling  to  lose,  as  it  has  given  us  much  for 
which  we  may  be  thankful.  In  our  day  it  is  quite 
certain  that  no  man  of  sound  judgment  would 
value  a  statement  uttered  by  a  sensitive  in  a 
state  of  trance  more  than  the  well-weighed  words 
of  a  wise  and  good  man. 

In  his  treatment  of  the  exceptional  pheno¬ 
menon  which  we  call  genius,  Mr  Myers  does  not 
take  the  best  line.  He  speaks  of  it  as  a  sudden 
uprush  of  the  sub-conscious  in  a  man.  This  is  a 
better  view  than  that  of  writers  like  Lambroso, 
who  classify  together  genius  and  madness.  Yet 
it  is  defective.  An  uprush  of  the  sub-conscious 
in  a  man  might  be  an  intensification  in  him  of 
what  is  most  like  the  animals,  and  might  drag 
him  to  a  far  lower  level  than  that  of  the  conscious 
self.  But  often  in  the  flashes  of  genius  it  is  not 
the  sub-conscious  which  prevails,  but  the  super¬ 
conscious.  Something  of  heaven  is  drawn  down 
to  earth.  The  man  of  genius  is  the  man  who 
sees  further  than  others  into  the  nature  and 
causes  of  things  ;  but  he  does  so  usually  not  by 
a  sudden  vision,  but  by  long  pondering.  A  better 
view  of  genius,  as  indeed  Mr  Myers  allows  in 
another  place,  ^  is  that  it  is  an  intensifying,  by  an 
accession  of  spiritual  force,  of  the  highest  powers 

^  Human  Personality^  i.  78. 


52  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


of  a  man,  the  most  clearly  marked  points  of  his 
personality.  We  must  recognise  the  fact  that  in 
almost  all  inspiration  there  is  a  joint- working  of 
man  and  not- man  ;  that  a  man  can  in  a  measure 
prepare  himself  for  inspiration,  as  an  iron  rod  can 
be  arranged  to  attract  the  lightning.  Every  good 
gift  and  every  perfect  gift  is  from  above,  and  the 
gifts  are  not  usually  bestowed  apart  from  the 
receptivity  of  those  to  whom  they  are  given. 
There  is,  no  doubt,  an  unexplained  element. 
Sometimes  God  chooses  the  weak  things  of  the 
world  to  confound  things  that  are  strong,  and 
makes  foolishness  triumphant  over  wisdom.  We 
may  recognise  here  the  working  of  a  deeper  law  ; 
but  we  must  not  commit  the  fatal  mistake  of 
supposing  that  God  rules  not  by  law  but  by 
caprice. 

The  highest  thing  we  find  in  the  world  is  a 
noble  human  personality.  And  it  is  one  of  the 
great  practical  paradoxes  of  life  that  the  human 
personality  which  is  most  constantly  in  quiet  and 
patient  communion  with  the  divine  does  not 
thereby  become  poor  and  colourless,  does  not 
sink  into  a  mere  vehicle  of  an  external  power, 
but  develops  more  remarkably  on  its  own  lines, 
gradually  growing  nearer  to  the  height  of  that 
side  of  divine  power  and  wisdom  with  which  it 
has  affinity.  In  the  mesmeric  or  spiritualist 
trance,  on  the  other  hand,  the  sensitive  loses  the 
conscious  life  to  become  the  medium  by  which 


SUB-CONSCIOUS  AND  SUPER-CONSCIOUS  53 


certain  unexplained  intelligences  operate.  And 
the  more  often  this  takes  place  the  more  com¬ 
pletely  does  the  sensitive  lose  in  power  of  will 
and  character,  becoming  possessed,  the  prey  of 
other  forces. 

And  it  must  be  added  that  if  we  accept  the 
test  set  up  by  the  Founder  of  Christianity,  ‘‘Ye 
shall  know  them  by  their  fruits,”  spiritism  will 
hardly  pass  the  ordeal.  It  has  been  noted,  both 
in  England  and  America,  how  much  laxity  in 
conduct,  especially  in  financial  probity  and  sexual 
morality,  follows  in  the  wake  of  spiritism.  And 
the  supposed  revelations  from  the  unseen  world, 
when  they  are  printed  in  books,  are  certainly 
not  at  all  on  the  same  level  as  the  great  inspired 
books  of  Christian  history.  There  is  much  in 
them  of  vague  sentimentality ;  but  little  of 
a  definite  character  which  can  be  brought  to 
any  test  of  fact. 

It  has  been  observed  that  when  the  circle  is 
spiritist,  the  communications  always  profess  to 
come  from  the  spirits  of  men  and  women  who 
have  lived  in  the  world  ;  but  when  the  circle 
does  not  consist  of  convinced  spiritists  they  pro¬ 
fessedly  come  from  a  variety  of  sources,  fairies, 
demons  or  earth  spirits.  The  intelligences  who 
communicate  in  some  circles  teach  the  doctrine 
of  the  transmigration  of  souls  into  new  bodies  ; 
in  other  circles  they  repudiate  this  teaching  ;  the 
tenor  of  their  assertions  is  quite  different  in 


54  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


England  or  America  from  what  it  is  in  France, 
and  so  forth.  There  does  not  at  present  appear 
to  be  any  certainty  that  the  communications 
move  outside  the  thoughts  and  beliefs  of  those 
present  at  the  sitting.  It  has  been  shrewdly  said 
that  the  only  spirit  whose  working  can  be  clearly 
traced  at  spiritualist  meetings  is  the  Zeitgeist, 
Therefore  I  think  we  are  justified  in  claiming  that 
the  religious  views  professed  by  the  spiritists, 
views  revealed  in  trance  and  expressed  in  auto¬ 
matic  writing,  must  be,  not  indeed  set  aside  as 
worthless,  but  judged  by  the  same  tests  as  other 
professions  of  faith. 

In  the  teaching  of  spiritism  there  is  nothing 
on  a  level,  I  do  not  say  with  the  New  Testament, 
but  with  the  writings  of  many  eminent  phil¬ 
osophers  and  theologians.  Swedenborg,  who 
stands  highest  among  those  who  have  professed 
to  obtain  a  modern  revelation  from  a  super¬ 
natural  source,  took  for  granted  in  his  writings 
that  the  Old  Testament  was  verbally  and  literally 
inspired  by  God.  What  could  be  the  value  of  a 
construction  based  upon  such  a  foundation  ? 
The  whole  history  of  modern  spiritism  is  of  a 
kind  to  inspire  one  with  little  confidence.  It 
may  be,  as  Mr  Myers  eagerly  believed,  that  the 
communications  from  the  unknown  realms  of 
spirit  are  now  fast  changing  their  character, 
and  becoming  more  systematic  and  more  trust¬ 
worthy.  Of  the  future  we  need  not  judge,  but 


SUB-CONSCIOUS  AND  SUPER-CONSCIOUS  55 


the  past  lies  open  to  our  inspection,  and  does  not 
stand  justified  when  tried  by  the  Master’s  tests. 

We  shall  in  vain  search  the  spiritist  literature 
of  our  time  for  the  great  ethical  ideas  which  have 
in  the  past  history  of  religion  made  up,  and  do 
to-day  still  make  up,  its  life-blood.  It  does  not 
tell  us  of  sin  and  of  forgiveness  ;  it  does  not  repre¬ 
sent  the  path  to  heaven  as  a  steep  and  difficult 
one.  It  does  not  dwell  on  the  nobleness  of  self- 
sacrifice,  of  the  daily  and  hourly  need  of  divine 
grace,  without  which  man  is  but  a  poor  phantom. 
It  reflects  nothing  but  a  vague  religiosity,  and 
represents  all  men  as  alike  in  the  way  of  salvation. 
It  is  but  too  true  a  reflection  of  what  is  weak  and 
fanciful  in  the  religion  of  the  age.  As  in  the 
stern  days  of  the  Reformation  all  the  phenomena 
of  sorcery  and  witchcraft  took  a  lurid  hue  from 
the  fierce  religious  feeling  of  the  time,  Satan  and 
his  spirits  and  the  fate  of  the  doomed  showing 
large  in  the  foreground,  so  the  necromancy  of 
to-day  depicts  a  future  state  of  being  colour¬ 
less  and  meaningless,  like  the  lives  of  many 
comfortable  Christians,  without  spiritual  passion 
or  ambition.  Mr  Myers  makes  it  a  great  merit 
of  modern  spiritism  that  according  to  it  “  of  evil 
spirits  other  than  human  there  is  no  news  what¬ 
ever  ”  ;  to  which  we  may  add  that  even  human 
spirits  seem  in  the  spiritist  revelations  to  be  often 
tricky  and  mendacious,  constantly  foolish  and 
trifling,  but  seldom  seriously  wicked.  But  does 


56  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


a  world  of  milk-and-water  platitude  bear  any 
relation  to  our  existing  human  world,  full  of 
cruelty  and  crime,  as  of  noble  self-sacrifice  ?  The 
future  world  revealed  by  spiritists  is  a  fair  reflec¬ 
tion  of  their  own  beliefs,  but  no  great  revelation 
to  man. 

It  is  maintained,  for  example,  by  Mr  A.  R. 
Wallace,  a  name  of  the  highest  rank  in  scientific 
research,  that  the  mediocrity  and  common-place 
character  observable  in  the  communications  of 
the  mediums  is  only  what  we  might  expect  if  the 
communicators  are  human  beings  released  from 
the  body,  since  the  mass  of  mankind  are  of  this 
ordinary  type.  If  we  accept  the  spiritist  com¬ 
munications  at  their  face  value,  we  must  allow 
considerable  force  to  this  argument.  But  we 
may  well  prefer  to  think  that,  granting  the  fact 
*  of  communications  of  this  kind,  we  do  not  yet 
really  understand  their  origin,  that  they  cover 
much  illusion,  and  that  God  has  reserved  for 
those  who  love  and  serve  him  some  better  fate 
than  to  become  wraiths  and  spooks,  and  to  spend 
energy  in  such  paltry  and  superficial  talks  as  con¬ 
stitute  the  great  mass  of  spiritist  revelations. 

Ill 

The  Conscious  and  Unconscious  in  Religion 

It  is  with  a  feeling  of  relief  that  I  turn  from 
the  phenomena  of  spiritism  to  those  of  will  and 


CONSCIOUS  AND  UNCONSCIOUS  IN  RELIGION  57 


personality,  from  the  sub-conscious  faculties  of 
man  to  those  which  are  conscious,  from  the 
passivity  of  the  medium  to  the  activities  of 
human  character. 

It  may  fairly  be  said  that  the  essentially 
active  nature  of  man,  the  place  of  will  in  the 
constitution  of  the  world,  is  a  truth  which  has 
gradually  been  growing  upon  humanity  during 
all  the  ages  of  its  thought.  Little  was  made  of 
the  will  in  the  philosophy  of  Greece,  though  it 
was  better  appreciated  by  Aristotle  than  by 
Plato,  and  better  by  the  Stoics  and  the  neo- 
Platonists  than  by  Aristotle.  Modern  philo¬ 
sophy  has  made  far  more  of  the  will  than  ancient ; 
and  in  modern  philosophy  we  may  see  a  gradual 
appreciation  of  its  primacy  growing  from  Locke 
to  Kant,  from  Kant  to  Schopenhauer,  from 
Schopenhauer  to  William  James. 

The  greatest  of  the  discoveries  which  have 
resulted  in  modern  days  from  the  better  appli¬ 
cation  of  method  in  psychological  study  is  the 
recognition  of  the  primacy  in  man  of  will,  as  com¬ 
pared  with  the  powers  of  perceiving  and  judging. 
We  recognise  in  man,  in  the  first  place,  a  force 
working  from  within  outwards.  It  is  of  his  very 
essence  to  strive,  to  try  to  impose  his  own  forms 
upon  the  outer  world.  He  is  not  a  passive  but 
an  active  being  ;  and  thought,  in  all  its  elabora¬ 
tion,  must  be  regarded  as  a  product,  and  not  the 
primary  product,  of  living. 


58  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


And  when  we  consider  this  active  centre  of 
force,  we  shall  find  it  no  mere  mechanism  for  the 
weaving  of  sensations  into  experience,  and  for 
arranging  facts  in  logical  order,  but  a  living 
creature  whose  origin  goes  back  to  the  very 
beginnings  of  humanity,  and  whose  evolution 
is  the  history  of  the  race.  It  is  the  crown  of 
creation,  the  leaven  which  the  Maker  of  the 
world  added  to  the  scheme  of  things  visible,  in 
order  that  by  degrees  it  should  leaven  the  whole, 
and  transform  it  into  a  temple  of  the  Divine 
Spirit. 

We  have  long  passed  the  time  when  it  could 
be  supposed  that  belief  was  a  matter  only  of 
reasoning  and  consistency.  Belief  is  the  expres¬ 
sion  of  a  spirit,  conditioned  indeed  by  the  data  of 
experience  and  the  laws  of  the  human  mind  ; 
but  yet  a  thing  fashioned  from  within,  and  not 
imported  from  without.  What  a  man  really 
believes,  that  he  is  ;  and  by  that  he  regulates 
his  conduct,  throwing  all  his  experience  into  the 
mould  of  an  inner  life,  and  arranging  it  on  the 
lines  of  character. 

I  do  not  mean  that  all  belief  is  a  merely  indi¬ 
vidual  matter,  or  that  every  man  has  to  form  it 
from  the  elements  for  himself.  Every  man  is 
more  than  a  mere  individual ;  he  is  one  of  a 
family,  a  nation,  a  church.  But  we  touch 
ground,  so  to  speak,  when  we  realise  that  in  the 
last  result  the  forces  of  which  the  human  universe 


CONSCIOUS  AND  UNCONSCIOUS  IN  RELIGION  59 


is  made  up  are  the  wills  of  human  beings  and  the 
Divine  Will  which  stands  over  against  them  and 
yet  works  within  them.  And  of  any  universe 
which  is  not  human  we  can  in  the  present  state 
of  our  faculties  know  nothing.  We  only  know 
nature  as  mirrored  in  the  human  consciousness  ; 
we  only  know  the  will  of  God  as  our  wills  find  it 
out. 

If  this  be  the  tendency  and  the  result  of  modern 
psychology,  of  man’s  study  of  himself,  it  will  at 
once  appear  how  much  the  course  of  thought  has 
done  to  bring  us  nearer  to  the  point  of  view  which 
was  taken  up  by  the  Founder  of  Christianity. 
When  he  spoke,  the  world  of  philosophy  was  filled 
with  the  notion  that  the  intellectual  faculties  of 
man  were  sufficient  not  only  to  enable  him  to 
discern  what  was  right,  but  to  induce  him  to  do 
it.  To  follow  reason  was  regarded  as  the  sum  of 
virtue,  and  man’s  passions  and  emotions  were 
considered  to  be  mere  sources  of  delusion  and 
error.  Intellect  was  treated  as  the  Godlike 
element  in  human  nature  ;  emotion  and  volition 
were  placed  at  a  lower  level.  His  teaching  that 
goodness  lay  in  conformity  with  the  will  of  God, 
that  even  for  the  knowledge  of  spiritual  things 
obedience  was  a  surer  guide  than  reasoning,  that 
the  test  of  doctrine  lay  in  the  fruit  which  it 
brought  forth  in  the  life,  that  man  must  be 
cleansed  from  the  heart  outwards  rather  than 
from  the  intelligence  inwards — all  this  teaching 


60  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


was  quite  contrary  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Platonic 
schools,  and  might  well  appear  to  the  Greeks  as 
mere  foolishness.  And  so  deeply  rooted  was  the 
opposite  view  of  life  that  very  soon  the  intel¬ 
lectual  teachings  of  Platonism  became  grafted 
upon  the  root  of  Christianity.  Even  the  author 
of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  one  of  the  greatest  of 
theologians  of  all  time,  imported  into  Christianity 
the  Greek  doctrine  of  the  Logos,  though  he  was 
in  spirit  too  near  to  his  Master  to  adopt  a  really 
Greek  view. 

Man  must  learn  by  degrees,  and  the  race  only 
reaches  the  truth  after  following  misleading 
paths  until  it  reaches  a  blind  wall.  It  was 
impossible  for  the  educated  world  of  Hellenism 
to  change  in  a  moment  its  point  of  view.  But 
we  may  fairly  say  that  the  teaching  of  Christ  has 
been  by  degrees  taking  a  stronger  and  stronger 
hold  of  thought.  And  we  may  fairly  say  that 
not  until  the  newer  psychology  made  its  way, 
and  the  primacy  of  the  active  over  the  reasoning 
faculties  of  man  was  established,  could  the 
Christian  view  appear  as  really  the  most  philo¬ 
sophic,  as  most  in  accord  with  the  facts  of  human 
nature  and  the  ways  of  God  as  revealed  in  the 
working  of  the  world. 


IV 

It  is  necessary,  however  difficult  it  may  be, 
seriously  to  attempt  the  distinction  of  higher  and 


CONSCIOUS  AND  UNCONSCIOUS  IN  RELIGION  61 


lower,  to  regard  religion  as  an  evolution  from  the 
lower  to  the  higher,  to  consider  the  will  of  God 
as  a  gradual  revelation  to  the  world.  In  this 
revelation  there  are  three  stages  :  (1)  that  in 

which  religion  is  mainly  concerned  with  the  sub¬ 
conscious  ;  (2)  that  in  which  religion  is  fully 

conscious  ;  (3)  that  in  which  religion  is  directed 
towards  the  super-conscious.  In  all  historic 
religions  these  three  elements  are  blended,  mixed 
in  various  proportions.  It  is  the  proportion  in 
which  they  are  mixed  which  fixes  their  place  in 
the  hierarchy. 

(I)  The  Pagan  religions  of  the  ancient  world, 
and  the  modern  religions  which  are  on  a  level 
with  them,  seem  to  live  with  faces  turned  back¬ 
ward,  towards  the  origin  of  man.  In  them  there 
survive  many  of  the  instincts  which  lie  at  the 
roots  of  our  animal  life.  When  they  emphasise 
the  relation  of  man  to  the  deities,  they  think  of 
these  deities  as  representing  the  great  facts  and 
processes  of  nature,  in  close  connection  with 
which  man  has  grown  up — the  sun  as  the  source 
of  light  and  heat,  the  rain  which  is  the  cause 
of  fertility  to  the  soil,  the  rising  of  the  sap  in 
the  trees,  and  the  influences  of  the  seasons  of  the 
year  and  the  successions  of  the  moons  on  the  . 
instinct  of  self-propagation.  The  religions  of 
Babylon  and  of  Egypt,  the  lower  strata  of  the 
religions  of  Greece,  were  of  this  character.  Man 
realised  that  he  shared  the  overflowing  life  of 


62  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


nature,  and  wanted  to  reeognise  in  joy  and  in 
gratitude  his  kinship  with  things  around  him. 
It  is  evident  that  when  men  are  at  this  stage, 
sueh  eonditions  as  those  of  dreaming,  tranee, 
and  eestasy  are  religious,  since  they  give  pre¬ 
dominance  to  the  sub-conscious  faculties,  to  the 
life  which  carries  on  the  necessary  natural 
functions  of  man,  as  apart  from  the  life  of  the 
intelligence.  And  we  may  readily  hence  under¬ 
stand  that  an  intensification  of  the  sub-conscious 
life  would  commonly  be  accompanied,  especially 
among  the  abnormally  sensitive  in  nerve,  by  a 
non-moral  exaltation,  often  leading  to  gross 
debauch,  and  sensual  excesses  of  an  extravagant 
kind.  Indeed,  such  aberrations  from  the  standard 
of  the  ethical  life  have  marked  most  popular 
revivals  of  religion,  from  the  days  when  the 
Roman  Senate  put  down  with  a  stern  hand  the 
inroads  of  Oriental  mysticism  in  southern  Italy 
to  our  own  times,  when  some  of  the  new  religious 
societies  of  America  have  superseded  the  precepts 
of  the  Decalogue. 

Naturalist  religion  tends  inevitably  to  decay 
as  man  becomes  civilised.  In  the  ancient  world 
it  survived  longest  in  out-of-the-way  places, 
among  the  hills  of  Phrygia  or  in  the  recesses  of 
Syria.  Thought  and  human  intercourse  weaken 
it.  But  it  leaves  behind  it  a  progeny  who  carry 
on  its  ideas  at  a  somewhat  different  level ;  it  is 
continued  in  the  lower  mysticism  and  in  poetry. 


CONSCIOUS  AND  UNCONSCIOUS  IN  RELIGION  63 


The  profound  tendencies,  rooted  in  the  heart  by 
unnumbered  ages  of  feeling,  cannot  easily  be 
extinguished.  Nor  is  it  desirable  that  they 
should.  Happiness  and  enthusiasm,  which  in 
man  depend  in  so  great  a  degree  on  the  instinctive 
feelings,  must  find  an  adequate  expression  ;  and 
without  some  such  expression  the  life  grows  sad 
and  stagnant.  In  actual  living  the  sub-conscious 
faculties  of  man  find  their  chief  employment. 
In  a  more  articulate  way  they  find  a  vent  and  an 
expression  in  art,  which  is  nearly  always  at 
bottom  the  ghost  of  dead  religion,  or  at  all  events 
the  outgrowth  of  suppressed  religion.  And  not 
only  art  properly  so  called — painting,  music,  and 
poetry, — but  also  such  mixed  customs  as  dancing 
and  personal  adornment  go  back  to  a  religious 
origin,  and  preserve  for  us  some  fragments  of 
the  enthusiasm  of  the  sub-conscious. 

(2)  Of  the  religions  which  belong  almost  wholly 
to  the  conscious  nature,  the  best  examples  are  the 
monotheism  of  some  of  the  later  philosophical 
schools  of  Greece,  especially  the  Stoics,  and  the 
Confucianism  of  China  and  Japan.  Here  we 
have  systems  of  belief  and  of  conduct  based  upon 
reason,  belonging  primarily  to  the  brain,  and 
thence  influencing  the  life.  These  religions  find 
form  in  ethical  maxims  rather  than  in  doctrine  ; 
they  do  not  give  birth  to  any  elaborate  ritual ; 
they  are  even  hostile  to  art.  They  seem  to  those 
who  look  on  them  dry  and  cold,  wanting  in 


64  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


adaptation  to  human  nature,  and  cut  off  from  all 
the  springs  of  enthusiasm.  Yet  it  would  be  a 
mistake  to  suppose  that  they  are  without  force 
in  the  world.  They  belong,  it  is  true,  to  the 
intellectual,  to  the  few  rather  than  to  the  many. 
But  in  a  healthy  and  normal  state  of  society  the 
intellectual  few  lead  the  many,  and  though  the 
influence  of  intellect  on  life  cannot  be  compared 
with  the  influence  of  love,  sympathy,  or  enthusi¬ 
asm,  yet  it  is  a  steady  and  a  uniform  force.  No 
one  has  more  clearly  shown  than  has  Auguste 
Comte  that,  in  spite  of  the  weakness  of  human 
intellect  in  comparison  with  the  active  powers  of 
man,  it  yet  has  a  directing  ability.  The  rudder 
does  not  propel  the  ship,  but  in  the  long-run  it 
decides  into  which  harbour  the  ship  shall  come, 
in  spite  of  the  most  violent  gales.  In  any  organ¬ 
ised  and  civilised  society,  if  there  be  a  clashing 
between  the  conscious  and  the  sub-conscious 
forms  of  religion,  the  former  will  come  to  the 
top,  and  the  latter  find  refuge  among  the  under 
circles. 

(3)  Fortunately,  however,  there  are  forms  of 
religion  which  are  higher  than  either  of  these, 
and  combine  what  is  best  in  both.  These  are 
the  religions  of  super-consciousness,  the  only 
example  of  which  that  need  be  considered  is 
Christianity  in  its  many  forms  and  aspects. 
The  essential  features  of  Christianity  I  have  tried 
to  point  out  elsewhere.  It  is  essentially  a  religion 


CONSCIOUS  AND  UNCONSCIOUS  IN  RELIGION  65 


of  consciousness,  since  it  measures  everything  in 
terms  of  human  will,  purpose,  and  personality. 
It  is  an  anthropocentric  as  opposed  to  a  pan¬ 
theistic  faith.  It  teaches  that  it  is  by  conscious 
striving  that  a  man  must  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  God.  It  lays  the  utmost  stress  on  correctness 
of  conduct,  on  the  performance  of  one’s  duty  to 
one’s  parents  and  one’s  neighbours.  It  exhibits 
the  road  to  heaven  as  a  steep  and  arduous  way, 
full  of  difficulties  which  can  only  be  surmounted 
by  working  with  full  purpose  of  heart.  It  makes 
goodness  consist  in  deed  as  well  as  in  thought. 
Its  righteousness  goes  beyond  the  righteousness 
of  those  Jewish  Puritans  the  Pharisees. 

But  there  is  also  another  side  to  it.  It  teaches 
also  that  without  divine  aid  man  cannot  advance 
in  the  life  of  religion,  that  while  a  good  will  is 
the  end  of  preaching,  a  will  cannot  make  itself 
good.  Progress  in  the  higher  life  requires  two 
elements  :  the  resolute  setting  of  the  will  of  man 
upon  what  is  right,  and  the  aiding  of  man’s  will 
by  the  will  of  God. 

The  life  of  the  Spirit  does  not,  according  to 
Christianity,  consist  in  a  mere  abdication,  in 
paralysis  of  will  and  subjection  of  the  intelli¬ 
gence  to  some  outer  force  ;  but  in  correlation  and 
co-operation  in  man  of  what  is  his  own  and  of  the 
power  which  is  not  his.  The  means  is  prayer, 
and  the  various  ordinances  of  religion,  such  as  the 

Communion,  which  are  the  vehicles  of  prayer. 

5 


66  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


The  religions  alike  of  the  sub-conscious  and  the 
conscious  have  no  need  of  prayer,  or  at  least  ot 
prayer  in  its  highest  forms,  the  first  because  it 
has  to  do  with  what  is  beneath  man,  the  second 
because  it  has  no  communion  save  with  man. 
But  to  supra  -  conscious  religion,  prayer  is  the 
natural  attitude  of  mind.  And  by  the  road  of 
prayer  the  divine  inspiration  is  constantly  passing 
into  human  life  ;  so  that,  to  revert  to  our  former 
comparison,  the  rays  which  were  above  the 
spectrum  of  consciousness  enter  into  it  more 
and  more  fully. 

I  do  not,  of  course,  use  the  term  prayer  here  in 
any  narrow  sense,  but  as  including  all  the  forms 
of  communion  with  the  higher  power.  Prayer 
may  find  articulate  expression  in  words,  or  it 
may  be  an  unexpressed  emotion.  And  articulate 
prayer  may  have  a  vast  range,  from  the  natural 
and  innocent  petition  for  personal  help  to  the 
profoundest  submission  to  the  recognised  will  of 
God.  At  all  times,  however,  the  prayer  of  a 
man  is  the  fullest  and  truest  expression  of  his 
conscious  spiritual  life. 


CHAPTER  IV 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  SPIRIT 

I 

From  the  days  of  Plato  onwards,  the  higher 
teaching,  the  doctrine  of  the  great  thinkers,  has 
been  that  the  inner  and  spiritual  world  is  the 
true  and  eternal  element,  the  world  of  sense  the 
temporary  and  evanescent  element.  The  sen¬ 
suous  is  but  the  reflection  of  the  spiritual  :  those 
who  see  with  the  eyes  of  sense,  but  not  with  the 
eyes  of  the  spirit,  are  blind.  Those  who  allow 
themselves  to  be  dominated  by  the  visible,  by 
that  which  appeals  only  to  the  life  of  the  world, 
are  torpid  or  dead  :  those  who  amid  mortal 
surroundings  live  the  life  of  the  spirit,  are  truly 
living. 

The  view  which  the  Platonists  try  to  justify 
to  the  understanding,  Christianity  has  from  the 
first  proclaimed,  not  on  grounds  of  reason,  but 
on  grounds  of  inward  perception,  and  the  feeling 
of  values.  It  has  taught  that  a  man  who  would 
be  worthy  of  life  must  look  not  at  the  things 
which  are  seen,  but  at  the  things  which  are  not 
seen,  for  the  things  which  are  seen  are  temporal, 
but  the  things  which  are  not  seen  are  eternal ; 

67 


68  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


that  a  man’s  life  consists  not  in  what  he  possesses 
but  in  what  fundamentally  he  is,  that  to  gain  his 
soul  he  must  be  willing  to  give  up  all  worldly 
advantage,  that  he  must  have  faith  to  dwell 
among  the  things  of  the  spirit. 

It  is  from  the  resistances  offered  to  our  energies 
by  the  material  world  that  we  have  learned 
natural  law,  and  from  such  experiences  our 
intellects  have  built  up  a  reasoned  system  of  the 
world.  Our  ancestors  when  in  a  primitive  con¬ 
dition  had  little  notion  of  natural  law ;  but 
supposed  that  the  forces  of  nature  and  material 
things  had  a  power  of  self  -  determination, 
possessed  something  like  human  free-will.  Only 
as  they  rose  by  degrees  to  the  perception  of  fixed 
rule  and  uniformity  in  nature  were  they  able  to 
order  their  actions  under  material  conditions,  so 
as  to  gain  effective  control  of  the  surrounding 
world.  Only  as  we  in  our  turn  discover  the 
laws  of  human  nature,  and  the  uniformities  in 
our  relations  to  our  spiritual  environment,  can 
our  intellects  guide  us  into  appropriate  and 
effectual  action  in  that  environment. 

In  the  Middle  Ages,  men  drew  a  hard-and-fast 
line.  Knowledge  in  regard  to  the  world  of 
sense,  they  held,  man  could  gain  by  the  exercise 
of  his  natural  powers.  But  knowledge  in  regard 
to  the  unseen  world  of  spirit,  and  with  knowledge, 
due  and  suitable  action  in  regard  to  it,  they 
thought  could  only  be  gained  through  revelation. 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  SPIRIT 


69 


And  the  revelation  they  supposed  to  be  embodied 
in  a  book,  or  in  an  organised  Church.  All  that 
man’s  intellect  could  do  was  to  discover  the 
dictates  of  that  book,  or  that  Church ;  after  which 
his  intellect  and  his  will  alike  were  bound  to 
accept  such  dictation. 

But  when  once  criticism  fairly  set  about  the 
task  of  considering  the  nature  of  inspiration  and 
of  revelation,  this  easy  resort  to  an  infallible 
guide  became  impossible.  At  the  time  of  the 
Reformation  it  was  clear  to  the  peoples  of 
northern  Europe  that  many  of  the  teachings, 
and  much  of  the  practise  of  the  Church  which 
claimed  to  be  infallible,  were  contrary  to  the 
light  of  intelligence  and  the  voice  of  conscience. 
For  a  time  the  Reformers  intrenched  themselves 
behind  the  refuge  of  an  infallible  Bible.  But 
when  historic  and  literary  criticism  had  passed 
its  most  rudimentary  stage,  it  became  obvious 
that  a  book  so  complex  and  so  wanting  in  self¬ 
consistence  could  not  be  infallible — that  in  fact 
it  was  not  one  book,  but  a  literature.  Thence¬ 
forward  the  spirit  of  man  was  driven  from  all 
shelters  into  the  open  sea,  and  was  obliged, 
willing  or  unwilling,  to  go  forward. 

That  all  truth  in  doctrine,  and  all  goodness  in 
action,  are  the  result  of  divine  inspiration  we  may 
still  believe.  But  this  inspiration  does  not  come 
into  human  life  as  through  a  transparent  medium, 
but  through  “a  dome  of  many-coloured  glass.” 


70  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


It  stands  in  relation  to  temporal  surroundings, 
to  schemes  of  philosophy  which  are  dominant, 
to  ancestral  methods  of  conduct,  above  all  to 
the  fixed  and  inevitable  scheme  of  human  nature. 

It  has  to  be  filtered  through  a  personality,  and 
conveyed  in  words  which  were  formed  only  with 
reference  to  the  visible  and  tangible.  It  is  only 
through  an  analysis  of  the  nature  of  inspiration 
and  the  human  faculties  on  which  it  acts  that  we 
can  hope  to  rise  through  the  temporary  and 
imperfect  expression  towards  the  divine  thought 
which  the  mind  of  man  can  constantly  approach 
without  ever  completely  reaching  it.  Of  inspira¬ 
tion  and  revelation  I  speak  more  at  length  in 
the  next  chapter. 

At  bottom  the  whole  question  is  one  of  fact 
and  experience.  We  have  the  facts  of  religion 
working  in  the  world  about  us.  And  we  have 
a  series  of  biographies  of  all  periods  in  the 
history  of  the  Church.  There  is  an  enormous 
consensus  of  testimony.  Thousands  have  testified 
that  when  their  own  powers  of  action  were 
exhausted,  they  have  been  aided  and  sustained 
by  a  spiritual  power  working  in  them,  raised  from 
despair  to  hope,  from  feebleness  to  efficiency, 
from  pessimism  to  a  free  and  joyous  activity. 
They  have  thrown  themselves  into  the  river  of 
spirit,  sometimes  doubting  whether  they  would 
ever  come  to  the  surface  ;  and  they  have  found 
themselves  borne  up  and  carried  onward  to  ends 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  SPIRIT 


71 


which  seemed  beyond  their  attainment,  very  often 
to  ends  which  they  had  not  seen  or  anticipated. 
The  venture  of  faith  has  been  justified.  Of  course, 
one  could  not  say  that  this  is  always  the  case  in 
the  world,  though  some  will  say  that  it  is  always 
the  case  in  their  own  experience.  There  is  risk 
which  has  to  be  incurred  ;  otherwise  faith  would 
have  in  it  little  merit.  And  so  poor  is  the  courage 
and  the  will  of  man,  that  however  clear  may  be 
the  recollection  of  past  aid,  it  yet  always  does 
require  some  strain  to  put  the  matter  to  the 
proof  again.  Jesus  said,  “  Every  one  that 
asketh  receiveth  ”  :  but  men  have  not  believed 
his  word,  because  they  have  not  recognised  the 
spiritual  aid,  unless  it  has  carried  them  exactly 
the  way  they  wished  to  go.  God  will  certainly 
not  be  dictated  to.  But  the  possibility  and 
the  actuality  of  divine  aid  seems  to  me  as 
well  established  by  history  as  any  of  the 
regular  phenomena  of  the  moral  constitution 
of  things.  And  it  takes  place  not  only  in  the 
great  crises  of  life  but  in  the  small  events  of 
every  day. 

II 

The  intellectual  difficulty  lies  in  the  interpreta¬ 
tion  of  the  source  and  the  meaning  of  such  aid. 
Here,  beyond  question,  there  is  the  greatest 
difference  of  view  between  man  and  man,  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  country,  the  education  and  the  personal 


72  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


character  of  each.  Here  we  have  to  trust  to  our 
intellectual  powers,  which  are  very  feeble  and 
prone  to  every  kind  of  illusion  and  of  error. 
The  varieties  of  religious  experience  are  many  ; 
but  the  interpretations  of  that  experience  are 
infinitely  more  varied. 

There  are  various  paths  to  union  with  the 
divine.  The  first  is  the  path  of  asceticism,  set 
forth  by  Buddhism,  and  eastern  religions  gener¬ 
ally.  These  religions  teach  that  all  desire  is  an 
evil,  and  only  by  quenching  it  can  a  man  attain 
to  peace  and  rest,  that  the  wants  natural  to  man 
as  man  must  be  thwarted  and  starved,  so  that  by 
degrees  he  may  quench  the  desire  of  life,  and 
attain,  not  in  one  life,  but  in  the  course  of  many 
lives,  to  that  condition  which  is  called  Nirvana, 
which  may  be  considered,  according  to  the 
point  of  view  which  one  takes,  as  either  the 
cessation  of  being  or  absorption  in  the  general 
life.  To  the  eastern  mind  the  highest  phase  of 
life  upon  earth  is  passive  contemplation  of  the 
divine,  accompanied  by  complete  indifference  to 
pain  and  pleasure.  The  duty  to  one’s  fellows  is 
not  to  inflict  upon  them  any  pain,  and  to  encourage 
them  on  the  road  to  Nirvana. 

This  oriental  frame  of  mind  has  had  many 
echoes  in  the  west.  To  pass  by  such  Greek  sages 
as  are  little  more  than  names  to  us,  such  as 
Pythagoras  and  Empedocles,  we  find  it  reflected 
in  some  of  the  many  forms  of  Platonism.  Some 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  SPIRIT 


73 


Platonists  speak  of  the  spirit  as  imprisoned  in 
the  body,  and  only  to  be  released  by  mortifica¬ 
tion  of  the  body.  It  is  probable  that  this  view 
came  into  Platonism  from  Orphism  ;  but  Plato 
and  his  successors  raised  all  the  mysticism  which 
they  adopted  to  a  higher  level,  both  ethical  and 
intellectual.  This  side  of  Platonism  became  more 
and  more  prominent  as  the  ancient  world  became 
weary,  and  drew  towards  its  dissolution.  It 
passed  on  into  rising  Christianity. 

The  asceticism  of  monk  and  hermit  in  the 
Christian  Church  has  had  much  in  common  with 
that  of  the  Buddhist  saint.  In  more  recent 
times  the  pessimistic  philosophy  of  von  Hartmann, 
which  regards  individual  existence  as  an  evil, 
is  closely  related  to  Buddhism.  And  in  the  poems 
of  Shelley,  one  of  the  least  consistent  of  human 
beings,  one  may  find  traces  of  asceticism  mingled 
with  overflowing  joy  of  life  : — 

“  He  has  outsoared  the  shadow  of  our  night ; 

Envy  and  ealumny  and  hate  and  pain, 

And  that  unrest  which  men  miscall  delight, 

Can  touch  him  not  and  torture  not  again.” 

After  all,  if  the  world  of  spirit  is  one,  including 
individuals,  there  must  lie  a  truth  at  the  founda¬ 
tion  of  asceticism,  of  the  practice,  even  if  that 
practice  may  often  have  been  defended  by  false 
theory.  The  members  of  monastic  societies,  and 
even  solitaries,  do  serve  a  function  in  emphasising 


74  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


and  strengthening  the  relation  between  God  and 
man.  By  rigorously  training  the  body,  and  by 
keeping  mind  and  desire  away  from  the  things 
of  the  world,  they  widen  the  connection  which 
unites  man  to  God,  and  they  produce  in  the 
world  of  spirit  fresh  courses  of  energy.  In  ways 
invisible  and  often  unfathomable  they  further 
the  divine  will.  And  indeed,  if  it  were  otherwise, 
if  all  the  prayer  and  devotion  of  the  monastery 
were  merely  wasted,  poured  out  in  vain,  it  would 
be  impossible  to  understand  how  thousands  in 
all  periods,  living  and  reasonable  men  and  women, 
would  have  found  in  the  life  of  the  cloister  their 
best  happiness,  and  regarded  expulsion  thence 
as  the  greatest  of  calamities.  When  Angelique 
Arnauld  was  allowed  to  follow  her  wish  and 
become  a  nun,  she  could  not  help  dancing  for 
joy.  It  is  by  no  means  only  those  who  have  met 
with  misery  and  disappointment  in  the  world 
who  have  found  a  refuge  in  the  cloister,  but 
thousands  of  men  and  women  before  whom  life 
spread  like  a  pleasant  garden.  They  have  chosen 
what  they  liked  best.  The  persistency  of  the 
monastic  impulse,  even  amid  the  most  modern 
conditions,  and  in  the  most  prosperous  countries, 
shows  that  it  meets  an  enduring  need  of  human 
nature,  is  a  testimony  to  the  reality  of  the  invis¬ 
ible.  No  doubt  in  the  Middle  Ages  the  tendency 
went  too  far ;  and  no  doubt  the  combination  of 
active  service  with  contemplation  is  an  improve- 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  SPIRIT 


75 


ment.  But  to  set  aside  the  whole  ascetic  tendency 
as  a  baseless  aberration  would  be  folly.  Tenny¬ 
son  says  that  the  thoughts  of  poets  enrich  the 
blood  of  the  world.  In  the  same  way  the  prayers 
and  meditations  of  the  cloister  have  enriched  the 
life-blood  of  Christianity. 

But  with  Christian  asceticism  there  has  nearly 
always  been  mingled  something  of  a  second  way 
to  the  divine,  practical  philanthropy.  In  view 
of  the  origins  of  Christianity,  and  the  recorded 
life  of  the  Founder,  it  was  almost  impossible 
that  in  his  followers  there  should  not  be  com¬ 
bined  with  self-denial  and  contemplation  of  the 
divine  nature  something  of  care  for  human 
happiness.  In  the  biography  of  the  Gospels  we 
find  the  combination  of  nights  of  communion 
with  God  and  days  of  faith-healing  and  active 
beneficence.  The  death  on  the  cross  may  be 
regarded  either  as  a  complete  surrender  to  the 
divine  will,  or  as  a  self-sacrifice  for  the  good  of 
mankind.  Love  to  God  and  love  to  man  were 
regarded  by  Jesus  as  mutually  complementary. 
And  the  Fourth  Evangelist,  who  so  wonderfully 
comprehended  the  spirit  of  his  Master,  writes 
that  no  one  can  love  God  who  does  not  also  love 
his  brother. 

In  our  days  the  way  of  practical  benevolence 
has  come  so  much  into  the  foreground  that  it  has 
almost  obscured  the  way  of  contemplation  and 
of  the  love  of  God.  The  religious  societies  which 


76  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


cultivate  contemplation  and  the  practice  of  wor¬ 
ship  are  giving  way  to  such  as  have  an  active 
mission  in  the  world.  The  type  of  sainthood  is 
becoming  more  and  more  practical,  the  type  of 
Father  Damien,  the  apostle  of  the  lepers,  rather 
than  the  type  of  the  hermit  and  the  recluse.  The 
thing  which  beyond  other  things  the  Christian 
Church  has  to  teach  the  community  at  present  is, 
that  apart  from  ideals  and  the  service  of  God, 
philanthropy  will  bring  no  cure  to  human  evils, 
but  even  intensify  them.  We  need  to  reverse 
the  saying  of  the  Evangelist,  and  to  proclaim 
that  he  who  does  not  keep  God  ever  in  his  mind 
will  love  his  fellow-men  to  no  great  purpose.  He 
is  likely,  in  the  long  run,  to  do  them  more  harm 
than  good.  If  he  promotes  their  happiness  it 
will  probably  be  at  the  expense  of  others. 

There  is  a  third  way  of  approach  to  the  divine, 
which,  however,  is  necessarily  confined  to  the  few. 
It  consists  in  so  deep  a  love  of,  and  sympathy 
with,  the  intellectual  side  of  the  natural  and  the 
human  world  as  to  enter,  so  to  speak,  into  the 
thought  of  the  Creator,  to  rejoice  in  what  is  called 
by  Bergson  devolution  creatrice,  to  understand 
more  and  more  of  the  inner  meaning  and  re¬ 
lations  of  the  world,  both  material  and  human. 
Whereas  asceticism  is  a  decaying  cause,  the  intel¬ 
lectual  sympathy  with  God  is  becoming  more  and 
more  possible,  as  we  sound  deeper  abysses  of 
experience,  and  learn  more  and  more  of  the 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  SPIRIT 


77 


working  of  law  and  of  inspiration  in  the  world. 
As  asceticism  needs  for  its  supplement  practical 
philanthropy,  so  this  higher  philosophy  is  natur¬ 
ally  allied  with  the  pursuit  of  science,  not  for  the 
mere  rewards  which  such  pursuit  may  bring,  but 
as  an  end  in  itself,  the  pure  love  of  knowledge 
and  truth. 

The  world  at  large  little  understands  or  ap¬ 
preciates  the  devotee  of  science.  It  sets  him 
down  as  an  unpractical  dreamer,  except  when 
from  time  to  time  he  astonishes  it  by  some 
brilliant  discovery  which  can  be  put  to  practical 
use.  If  his  devotion  renders  him,  as  it  often 
does,  a  somewhat  abstracted  husband  or  in¬ 
efficient  parent,  it  abuses  him  for  selfishness. 
The  Marthas  of  the  world  are  always  claiming 
from  him  a  practical  co-operation,  which  he  is 
often  unfit  to  give.  Seldom  indeed  is  his  life 
one  of  prosperity  or  worldly  success.  Yet  as  a 
class  the  devotees  of  science,  of  truth  in  nature 
and  in  history,  are  probably  as  happy  as  any 
class  of  men.  Great  and  even  small  discoveries 
of  new  scientific  laws  or  new  keys  to  history  and 
conduct  give  them  a  pleasure  which  is  not  only 
keen  but  pure,  and  which  entails  no  reaction. 
They  also  “  touch  God’s  right  hand  in  the 
darkness,  and  are  lifted  up  and  strengthened.” 

Yet  another  way  towards  the  dominance  of 
spirit  is  that  followed  by  artists,  poets,  musicians, 
when  they  devote  themselves  wholly  to  their 


78  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


crafts,  and  undergo  the  rigorous  self-discipline 
and  training  which  they  all  involve,  in  the  pur¬ 
suit  of  beauty,  of  harmony,  of  the  embodiment 
of  the  ideas  revealed  to  their  spirits  in  painting 
or  statue,  in  poem  or  musical  composition.  As 
God,  by  pouring  into  the  world  the  breath  of  life, 
produces  men  with  character  and  purposes,  so 
the  artist  creates  forms  which  take  their  place  in 
the  world  of  sense,  revealing  what  had  been 
only  implicit  and  undefined,  and  thereby  stirring 
the  spirits  of  men  and  leading  them  towards 
happiness. 

Ill 

Since,  however,  man  is  an  individual,  we  must 
consider  the  matter  before  us  also  from  the  indi¬ 
vidual  point  of  view  of  happiness.  Men  will 
naturally  say  that  it  may  be  a  worthy  course  to 
further  the  spiritual  life  in  the  world,  but  that 
they  want  also  to  see  wherein  it  will  further  their 
own  ultimate  well-being. 

It  is  the  weak  point  of  all  theories  of  ethics 
that  the  question  why  a  man  should  postpone  his 
own  happiness  to  the  good  of  the  race  remains 
insoluble.  It  can  only  be  met  by  an  appeal  to 
faith,  to  the  higher  nature.  The  answer  of  Jesus 
was,  ‘‘  that  ye  may  be  the  children  of  your  Father 
in  heaven.”  The  answer  of  mediaeval  Christi¬ 
anity  was,  “  that  you  may  secure  future  happiness 
in  heaven.”  John  Stuart  Mill,  in  utilitarian 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  SPIRIT 


79 


despair  of  finding  a  sufficient  motive,  said  that 
anyone  who  refused  to  consider  others  should  be 
treated  as  a  mad  dog.  All  states  try,  by  rewards 
and  punishments,  to  secure  a  certain  amount  of 
self-sacrifice  in  the  individual ;  but  in  western 
countries  the  growth  of  individualism  and  the 
chaos  in  ethics  have  made  such  legislation  in  many 
matters  ineffective.  Thus  in  modern  life  the 
man  who  pursues  a  life  of  materialist  selfishness 
often  does  not  meet  with  obvious  punishment. 

I  am  no  better  prepared  than  other  moralists 
to  provide  a  self-regarding  reason  for  social 
conduct.  But  I  think  that  when  society  has 
better  organisation  something  more  of  discipline 
will  be  attempted.  Meantime  I  may  observe 
that  a  reasoned  selfishness  is  not  very  common  as 
a  ruling  principle  in  life,  though  an  impulsive  or 
emotional  selfishness  may  be.  And  when  we 
consider  the  analogies  to  be  found  in  the  world 
we  shall  see  that  reasoned  selfishness  is  decidedly 
out  of  place  in  the  biological  scheme  of  things. 

A  very  consolatory  reflection,  amid  the  dis¬ 
appointments  of  life,  may  be  derived  from  the 
eternal  hopefulness  of  nature,  and  of  the  creative 
spirit  who  works  through  nature.  The  moment 
rain  stops  the  earth  begins  to  dry  up  ;  no  con¬ 
tinuance  of  bad  weather  at  all  diminishes  the 
hopefulness  with  which  nature  turns  to  brighter 
days.  If  one  examines  the  shrubs  and  trees  in 
November,  one  finds  that  leaves  do  not  drop  off 


80  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


merely  because  they  are  decayed ;  they  are 
pushed  off  by  the  buds  which  are  already  begin¬ 
ning  to  form  in  preparation  for  the  spring  of  the 
next  year.  In  the  case  of  healthy  human  beings, 
the  moment  disease  has  passed  its  crisis,  the 
powers  of  new  growth  and  recovery  begin  to 
assert  themselves.  Nature  is  never  weary  and 
never  despondent,  but  always  striving  towards 
recovery  and  new  life.  The  keener  our  sympathy 
with  nature,  the  stronger  will  be  the  contagion 
by  which  nature  passes  on  to  us  this  keen  and 
hopeful  frame  of  mind. 

So,  if  we  would  be  the  children  of  the  author  of 
nature,  we  are  urged  never  to  despair,  however 
dark  the  clouds  may  be,  but  to  keep  doing,  always 
aiming  at  what  is  better,  and  when  we  fail  begin¬ 
ning  again.  Such  constant  striving,  however  it 
may  seem  in  this  or  that  case  to  be  frustrated, 
must  in  the  long  run  tend  to  produce  a  better 
earth,  and  a  nearer  approach  to  heaven,  just  as 
the  creative  spirit,  always  working  in  the  world, 
has  by  degrees  produced  plants  and  animals  of  a 
higher  grade  and  of  greater  beauty. 

The  view  maintained  in  this  work  is  that  it  is 
the  main  end  and  business  of  every  man  to  take 
his  due  place  in  the  world  of  spirit.  To  the  laws 
of  that  world  he  owes  loyalty.  To  other  citizens 
of  that  world  he  owes  consideration  and  affection. 
To  the  Ruler  of  that  world  he  owes  both  love  and 
obedience.  That  by  such  a  course  he  will  reach 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  SPIRIT 


81 


his  own  best  happiness  is  not  a  thing  that  can  be 
proved.  It  must  be  accepted  by  that  stress  of 
heart  and  will  which  is  called  faith.  But  if  it 
cannot  be  proved,  it  certainly  cannot  be  dis¬ 
proved.  In  the  main  conduct,  as  in  most  of  the 
urgent  decisions,  of  life  a  man  must  take  risks. 
He  will  learn  in  the  course  of  living  that  such 
ventures  of  faith  justify  themselves  in  practice. 
And  so  he  will  believe  that  the  venture  in  the 
quest  of  eternal  life  will  also  justify  itself.  As 
St  Paul  puts  it,  “If  ye  live  unto  the  flesh,  ye 
shall  die  ;  but  if  ye  through  the  spirit  mortify 
the  deeds  of  the  flesh,  ye  shall  live.”  And  he 
will  find  that  if  he  allows  the  connection  between 
his  spirit  and  the  Divine  Spirit  to  be  blocked, 
whether  by  actual  transgression  or  by  an  accumu¬ 
lation  of  indolence  and  self-will,  his  inner  life 
will  grow  poorer  and  poorer  ;  so  that  however  he 
may  seem  to  the  world  to  prosper,  he  will  become 
in  his  own  eyes  contemptible  and  wretched. 

That  a  man’s  life  consists  not  in  the  extent  of 
his  possessions,  that  wealth  and  outward  pros¬ 
perity  have  very  little  relation  to  happiness,  any¬ 
one  can  see  who  looks  a  little  beneath  the  surface. 
If  anyone  considers  who  among  his  friends  are 
really  the  happiest,  he  will  seldom  find  that  they 
are  the  wealthiest  and  most  prosperous.  The 
opposite  view  is  easily  recognised  as  an  illusion. 
Yet  there  are  undoubtedly  conditions  in  the 

world  more  favourable  to  happiness  than  are 

6 


82  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


their  opposites.  Health  among  the  first,  and 
domestic  relations  of  a  satisfactory  kind,  and 
kinds  of  work  which  suit  the  individual  and  exer¬ 
cise  his  powers  without  overtaxing  them.  But 

« 

yet  all  these  together,  though  they  may  promote 
happiness,  do  not  constitute  it.  Happiness  is 
from  within ;  it  is  a  central  fountain  of  life, 
which  will  find  easier  course  when  circumstances 
are  favourable ;  but  which  will  break  a  way 
through  almost  any  obstacles.  This  inner  spring 
is  dependent  on  relations  to  the  spiritual  source 
of  life.  It  rises  and  falls,  is  full  or  runs  dry 
according  to  laws  which  none  of  us  can  fathom. 
But  the  chief  condition  of  it  lies  in  a  right  relation 
to  the  law  of  our  being,  in  an  inward  sense  that 
we  are  pursuing  the  course  which  the  author  of 
our  being  intended  us  to  pursue.  Happiness  in 
the  main  depends  on  the  harmony  of  our  per¬ 
sonality  with  such  a  course  ;  unhappiness,  on  a 
divergence  from  it. 

Experience  shows  that  the  greatest  source  of 
happiness  in  the  world  is  the  fulfilment  by  indi¬ 
viduals  of  the  law  of  their  being,  rather  than  the 
pursuit  of  pleasure. 

It  is  so  even  among  insects.  In  a  hive  of  bees 
the  drones  are  all  eager  to  have  intercourse  with 
the  queen  when  she  makes  her  nuptial  flight. 
One  only  succeeds,  and  he  perishes  in  the  act; 
yet  he  is  the  happiest  of  all,  and  all  would  gladly 
change  places  with  him.  The  workers,  unde- 


THE  CLAIMS  OF  SPIRIT 


88 


veloped  females,  seem  to  find  infinite  unselfish 
happiness  in  storing  honey  for  the  hive  and  tend¬ 
ing  the  grubs  which  shall  develop  into  bees.  It 
is  so  among  animals.  The  dog  who  has  any 
goodness  in  him  does  not  hesitate  for  a  moment 
to  attack  a  dog  larger  than  himself,  in  the  service 
of  his  master.  But  the  dog  is  at  a  high  level  of 
the  animal  world,  and  he  may  by  love,  fidelity,  and 
devotion  to  his  master  even  be  said  to  enter  into 
the  world  of  spirit,  and  to  attain  a  happiness 
greater  than  any  mere  indulgence  of  sense. 

I  have  above  spoken  of  the  two  instincts  of 
self-expansion  and  of  sex  as  the  primary  im¬ 
pulses  of  man,  on  the  gratification  of  which 
happiness  naturally  depends.  On  the  first  of 
these  instincts  is  based  that  passion  for  carrying 
out  the  law  of  one’s  being  of  which  I  have  been 
speaking.  On  the  second  is  based  a  man’s  re¬ 
lation  to  society.  No  man  can  be  happy  unless 
he  meets  with  the  appreciation  of  his  fellow-men 
and  with  the  stronger  feeling  of  love  from  a  few. 
In  rare  cases  he  may  be  called  upon  to  sacrifice 
both  of  these  to  his  loyalty  to  the  higher  calling. 
But  generally  speaking  they  regulate  his  conduct. 
And  they  cannot  be  attained  without  a  certain 
degree  of  self-subordination  to  the  happiness  of 
others.  The  man  who  sacrifices  to  his  own 
success,  duty  and  the  happiness  of  those  about 
him  is  not  only  base,  but  also  in  the  long  run 
the  most  miserable  of  mankind. 


CHAPTER  V 


INSPIRATION  AND  REVELATION 

I 

Inspiration  and  revelation  are  two  sides  or 
aspects  of  the  same  fact.  Each  implies  the  com¬ 
munication  to  chosen  men  of  impulses  coming 
from  that  which  is  super-conscious.  I  have 
spoken  of  this  process  elsewhere  as  the  communi¬ 
cation  to  man  of  the  divine  ideas.  But  when 
one  thus  uses  the  word  ideas,  it  is  necessary  to 
explain  that  one  uses  it  rather  in  a  Platonic  than 
in  a  modern  sense.  One  means  by  it  the  primary 
impulses,  which  are  ever  coming  from  God  and 
moulding  the  world  of  nature  and  of  man  in  the 
direction  of  the  better.  Such  impulses  may 
take  body  in  many  forms,  in  literature,  in  art,  in 
great  reforms,  in  noble  enterprises.  But  between 
inspiration  and  revelation  there  is  this  distinction. 
When  we  speak  definitely  of  inspiration  we  refer 
mainly  to  the  character  and  spirit  of  the  messenger 
who  is  filled  with  an  impulse  from  above,  and  by 
it  carried  above  the  level  of  ordinary  life.  And 
when  we  speak  of  revelation  we  refer  primarily 
to  the  intellectual  fruits  of  inspiration,  the 
speeches  which  the  inspired  man  utters,  the 

84 


INSPIRATION  AND  REVELATION 


85 


treatises  which  he  writes,  the  belief  which  he 
formulates. 

A  full  and  warm  belief  in  the  value  of  inspira¬ 
tion  and  revelation  belonged  eminently,  though 
of  course  not  exclusively,  to  the  Jewish  race. 
Through  all  its  ancient  history,  Israel  has  been 
the  race  of  inspiration.  Prophets  arose  in  genera¬ 
tion  after  generation,  speaking  in  the  name  of 
Jehovah,  and  calling  on  the  people  to  repent, 
to  remember  the  loyalty  due  to  the  divine  ruler, 
to  trust  in  him  with  all  their  hearts,  and  to  keep 
the  law  which  he  had  given.  Hence  arose  the 
Jewish  scriptures,  which  may  fairly  be  called  the 
basis  of  western  religion,  the  basis  on  which 
Christianity  built  an  immortal  structure. 

Among  the  Greeks  inspiration  was  far  less 
regarded.  Any  sort  of  fanaticism,  any  claim  to 
a  special  relation  to  the  divine,  was  looked  on 
by  the  Greeks  with  suspicion,  and  keenly  criticised. 
In  the  case  of  a  few  of  the  immortals,  Socrates, 
Plato,  Epictetus,  such  claims  were  allowed  by 
their  disciples  :  but  their  utterances  were  so 

much  subordinated  to  reason  and  method  that 

» 

they  had  little  of  the  stirring  power  of  the  prophets 
of  Israel.  The  ancient  sacred  literature  of  India 
1  and  Persia  is  at  a  wonderfully  high  level ;  but  it 
I  also  is  so  transfused  with  meditation  as  to  become 
j  rather  theosophy  than  religion.  The  relations 
of  the  Jewish  seers  to  God  was  so  close  that  they 
were  able  to  learn  and  to  set  forth  more  of  the 


86  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


divine  purpose  than  the  wise  men  of  all  the 
nations.  They  revealed  God  as  the  Greeks 
discovered  man  and  the  world. 

Above,  in  discussing  the  sub-conscious,  the 
conscious,  and  the  super-conscious  in  knowledge, 
and  particularly  in  religion,  we  have  been  investi¬ 
gating  the  psychology  of  inspiration.  But  it 
may  be  well  to  retrace  here  the  lines  of  the 
subject. 

Recent  psychology  has  dwelt,  as  I  think  with 
excessive  emphasis,  on  the  part  played  by  dreams 
in  human  life.  No  doubt  it  is  not  rare  for  those 
whose  dreams  are  of  a  more  persistent  and  con¬ 
nected  kind  to  learn  from  dreams  much  in  regard 
to  the  part  of  their  being  which  is  unconscious. 
This  is,  of  course,  no  new  discovery  :  in  all  countries 
and  at  all  ages  dreams  have  been  often  regarded 
as  a  kind  of  revelation,  though  seldom  of  the. 
highest  kind.  There  were  in  Greece  many 
temples  in  which  invalids  slept,  in  the  hope  that 
in  dreams  the  nature  of  their  illness,  and  perhaps 
some  remedy  offered  by  the  gods,  might  be 
revealed.  In  many  parts  of  the  Old  Testament 
dreams  are  spoken  of  as  revealing  the  sacredness 
of  a  locality,  or  the  way  to  the  divine  favour,  or, 
in  particular,  the  course  of  future  events.  The 
beginning  of  Matthew’s  Gospel  is  full  of  dreams, 
in  which  specially  favoured  servants  of  God  are 
shown  what  they  ought  to  do,  or  whither  they 
should  go.  Belief  in  heaven-sent  dreams  has 


INSPIRATION  AND  REVELATION 


87 


been  one  of  the  strands  of  which  all  religions  in 
the  past  have  been  made  up.  The  recent  treat¬ 
ment  of  dreams  has  regarded  them  as  throwing 
light  not  upon  the  nature  of  duty  or  divine 
impulses,  but  upon  the  sub-conscious  elements 
in  a  man’s  own  being,  dragging  into  light  hidden 
reasons  for  his  actions,  and  enabling  him  or  his 
advisers  to  counteract  by  conscious  processes 
pernicious  tendencies. 

In  my  opinion  it  is  easy  to  make  too  much  of 
dreams  in  this  connection.  Vivid  and  connected 
dreams  are  concomitants  rather  of  disease  than 
of  health.  The  ordinary,  well-constituted  man 
may  indeed  dream,  but  his  dreams  are  so  vague 
and  fleeting,  so  inconsistent  and  irrational,  that 
very  little  indeed  can  be  made  of  them.  When, 
however,  dreams  are  vivid  and  persistent,  it  is 
natural  to  seek  an  explanation  of  them.  Sooth¬ 
sayers  of  all  ages  have  found  one  of  the  most 
lucrative  branches  of  their  trade  in  the  explana¬ 
tion  of  dreams.  Usually  they  lend  themselves 
to  a  score  of  explanations.  Some  may  indicate 
bodily  illness,  some  mental  overstrain,  some  a 
great  nervous  shock.  A  few,  among  many,  may 
come  through  the  gate  of  horn,  and  give  informa¬ 
tion  of  a  valuable  kind,  as  to  the  unconscious 
elements  in  the  personality  of  the  dreamer. 

So  far  as  I  am  able  to  judge,  infinitely  more 
valuable  thoughts  and  impulses  come  into  the 
mind  at  the  moment  of  waking  than  in  the 


88  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


course  of  dreams.  Often  it  has  happened  to  me 
to  find  formed  within  me  at  the  moment  of 
waking,  a  conviction  or  a  purpose,  which  hot  only 
had  not  been  present  when  I  went  to  sleep,  but 
seemed  to  me  quite  new.  But,  in  fact,  at  any 
time  of  quiet  or  meditation,  during  a  solitary 
walk,  in  the  presence  of  sea  or  mountain,  when 
one  is  recovering  from  illness,  when  the  mind  is 
withdrawn  from  the  daily  cares  and  troubles  of 
life,  one  feels  rising  within  one  hopes  and  pur¬ 
poses  which  sometimes  give  a  new  aspect  to 

life.  Probablv  there  was  never  a  time  when 

«/ 

men  were  less  given  to  quiet  and  receptivity. 
The  pace  of  life  is  always  increasing ;  we  rush  to 
constant  occupation  and  perpetual  preoccupation  ; 
we  are  always  doing  something  or  talking  to 
some  one.  Hence  the  aspect  of  religion  is  changed ; 
there  is  more  of  ritual  and  ceremony,  less  of  inward 
and  meditative  religion.  That  our  ways  tend 
to  make  our  Christianity  more  superficial,  more 
restless,  less  serious,  can  hardly  be  denied. 

William  James  has  spoken  of  genius  as  a  sudden 
or  abnormal  uprising  of  the  unconscious  in  us. 
This  definition  may  serve,  if  by  genius  we  mean 
not  only  genius  for  good,  but  genius  for  evil 
also.  The  unconscious  is  a  profound  sea,  on  which 
we  fioat,  and  its  supersession  of  the  conscious  may 
lead  to  sublime  heights  of  art,  of  feeling,  or  of 
virtue,  or  may  debase  us  by  drawing  us  back  towards 
the  savagery  from  which  we  have  emerged. 


INSPIRATION  AND  REVELATION 


89 


Inspiration  in  religion  is  what  Matthew  Arnold 
called  genius  for  godliness,  a  pouring  out  in  our 
lives  of  the  impulses  of  the  Power  that  makes  for 
righteousness.  This  we  may  most  clearly  see  in 
the  case  of  what  one  may  call  the  classical 
examples  of  inspiration,  the  Hebrew  prophets. 
At  times  when  the  national  life  was  sinking  to  a 
low  ebb,  when  the  Jewish  nation  was  reverting  to 
the  level  of  the  Canaanites  around,  they  came  to 
call  the  nation  to  repentance,  to  renewed  worship, 
to  the  hope  of  a  better  future. 

Primarily,  they  were  preachers  or  proclaimers 
of  the  need  of  righteousness,  of  a  just,  pure,  and 
noble  life  for  the  nation  and  the  individual. 
But  they  went  beyond  mere  exhortation  to  the 
practice  of  good.  Their  inspiration,  so  to  speak, 
overflowed  into  the  way  of  thought  and  intelli¬ 
gence.  In  accord  with  the  general  feeling  of  the 
time  they  declared,  in  the  first  place,  that  right¬ 
eousness  led  to  national  prosperity  and  a  high 
place  among  the  nations.  So  far  they  preached 
for  all  time.  But  they  also  taught  that  in  the 
individual  life  righteousness  led  to  outward  pros¬ 
perity  and  success.  This  was  far  more  doubtful 
doctrine  ;  and  in  the  book  of  Job  we  have  a 
magnificent  protest  against  its  universal  truth, 
though  even  Job  comes  to  a  “  happy  ending,” 
and  the  patriarch  recovers  his  worldly  possessions. 
So  the  growing  conviction  that  the  noblest  life 
is  not  necessarily  the  most  prosperous  forced 


90  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


inspiration  to  take  a  less  individual  course, 
and  to  predict  for  the  nation  a  happy  time  in 
the  future,  when  it  should  become  a  holy  people, 
and  rule  in  peace  and  plenty  among  the  nations. 

Hence  arose  the  great  apocalyptic  literature  of 
later  Israel,  which  led  in  turn  to  the  preaching 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  by  John  the  Baptist, 
and  in  an  infinitely  nobler  form,  by  Christ  himself. 
And  thence,  again,  arose  the  great  mediaeval 
teaching  of  Heaven,  Hell,  and  Purgatory,  which 
dominated  the  minds  of  our  ancestors,  and  still 
to  a  great  degree  dominates  the  minds  of  nations 
influenced  by  Christianity. 

The  point  on  which  I  want  to  insist  is  that  the 
root  of  prophecy  was  an  impulse  or  urging  arising 
from  the  unconscious.  It  was  a  call  proceeding 
from  the  great  Ruler  of  the  unconscious  world,  a 
divine  idea  which  tended  to  the  formation  of 
great  ideals  in  a  race  chosen  to  lead  and  instruct 
mankind,  and  to  the  raising  of  the  level  of 
humanity. 

The  comprehension  of  the  idea  by  the  Prophets 
and  their  attempt  to  give  it  intellectual  form, 
were  always  very  imperfect.  Even  when  the 
inspiration  was  of  the  purest  and  highest  type, 
the  words  and  deeds  in  which  it  took  concrete 
form  and  expression  were  the  words  and  deeds 
of  an  individual ;  for  of  the  inspiration  of  societies 
I  am  not  at  present  speaking ;  that  I  must  deal 
with  later.  The  individual,  then,  who  was  the 


INSPIRATION  AND  REVELATION 


91 


channel  of  inspiration  had  to  give  it  expression 
through  his  concrete  personality.  Hence,  end¬ 
less  perversion  and  adulteration.  The  moral 
nature  of  the  prophet  was  not,  could  not  be, 
perfect,  but  was  humanly  imperfect  and  one¬ 
sided.  However  much  he  might  strive  to  set  it 
aside  and  to  be  a  mere  mouthpiece  of  the  inspira¬ 
tion,  he  could  not  do  so  wholly.  Necessarily,  he 
was  under  the  dominion  of  what  Bacon  calls  the 
idols,  the  idols  of  the  cave  and  of  the  tribe.  As 
the  worship  of  Jehovah  had  in  Israel  constantly 
to  contend  against  the  worship  of  inferior  deities, 
so  the  word  of  Jehovah  in  the  spirit  of  the  prophet 
had  to  struggle  against  a  host  of  idols,  desires, 
prejudices,  personal  feelings.  He  would  often 
retire  into  the  wilderness  to  starve  and  mortify 
the  personal  bias  ;  but  even  so,  wherever  he  went 
he  carried  with  him  his  personality,  with  all  its 
weaknesses  and  with  all  its  strength.  He  would 
even  so  find  that — 

“  Time,  like  a  dome  of  many-eoloured  glass, 

Stains  the  white  radiance  of  eternity.” 

But  what  seems  to  a  modern  mind  even  more 
disastrous  to  the  purity  of  inspiration  is  the 
limitation  of  intellectual  outlook.  The  prophet’s 
knowledge  of  nature  and  of  man  was  very  im¬ 
perfect  ;  even  of  the  social  and  political  world 
beyond  the  reach  of  his  own  observation  and  ex¬ 
perience  it  was  so  small  that  he  would  constantly 


92  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


be  drawing  false  inferences  and  making  hasty 
generalisations.  When  we  think  of  these  things 
it  may  well  seem  a  marvel  that  after  all  there  is 
much  which  belongs  to  all  time,  much  which  only 
needs  resetting  to  be  a  light  to  the  modern  world. 
That  this  should  be  the  case  proves  the  funda¬ 
mental  reality  of  the  inspiration,  proves  that  the 
prophet  was  really  in  contact  with  a  vast  region 
of  the  unconscious,  underlying  the  being  of 
nations  and  of  individuals,  a  world  of  ideas 
generally  dawning  on  the  world  and  destined 
to  dawn  upon  it  in  the  future.  As  ^neas  saw  in 
Hades  the  souls  which  should  animate  those  here¬ 
after  to  be  born,  so  the  prophet  saw  something 
of  the  underlying  forces  which  should  gradually 
inform  the  world. 

It  was  but  natural  that  with  this  deeper  view 
within  him,  he  should  have  felt  able  to  foretell 
actual  events  in  the  world, — the  fall  of  Tyre,  the 
ruin  of  Babylon.  But  naturally,  when  he  came 
to  speak  of  actual  events,  he  would  be  liable  to 
many  misleading  tendencies,  he  would  speak  of 
that  of  which  he  had  little  knowledge.  So  his 
definite  predictions  were  very  often  falsified.  And 
when  he  spoke  of  what  was  far  removed  from 
human  knowledge,  the  creation  of  the  world,  the 
course  of  the  stars,  and  the  like,  he  would  naturally 
only  speak  in  what  seem  to  us  parables  and  images. 

In  Jewish  prophecy  we  find  the  phenomena  of 
inspiration  in  their  simplest  and  most  intelligible 


INSPIRATION  AND  REVELATION 


93 


form.  But  all  inspiration,  that  of  the  Christian 
origins,  that  of  the  Catholic  Church,  that  of  great 
modern  prophets,  is  of  the  same  general  character. 
It  implies  a  source  in  the  unconscious,  and  for 
all  the  nobler  kind  of  inspiration  in  what  I  have 
called  the  super-conscious.  It  is  all  liable  to  be 
perverted  by  selfishness,  prejudice,  hate.  And 
it  has  always  to  be  expressed  in  terms  of  the 
intellectual  equipment  of  the  age.  It  is  of  all 
degrees  of  value  and  trustworthiness  from  the 
almost  worthless  to  the  sublimest  efforts  of 
genius,  or  to  such  utterance  of  supersensual 
truth  as  many  of  us  might  accept  as  infallible. 

The  predominance  of  revelation  in  Israel  has  had 
extraordinary  effects,  both  for  good  and  evil,  in 
the  course  of  Christianity.  At  the  time  of  the 
rise  of  Christianity,  the  Jews  had  become  con¬ 
vinced  of  the  perfection  and  infallibility  of  their 
sacred  books,  an  infallibility  not  only  spiritual, 
but  literal.  No  reader  of  the  New  Testament 
can  fail  to  observe  with  what  complete  confidence 
the  Jewish  sacred  writers  are  cited.  Often,  indeed, 
their  words  are  misinterpreted ;  but  that  they 
are  liable  to  error  seems  hardly  to  be  hinted, 
except  where  they  were  emended  by  Christ  him¬ 
self.  The  Christians  took  over  from  the  Jews 
the  doctrine  of  the  infallibility  of  scripture,  and 
before  long  certain  of  the  early  Christian  writings 
were  added  to  the  Jewish  canon,  and  shared  with 
it  the  robe  of  infallibility. 


94  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 

I  have  already  tried  to  show  that  inspiration 
belongs  not  only  to  the  unconscious,  but  also  to 
the  conscious  elements  in  man.  It  may  act,  not 
by  superseding  the  normal  powers  of  intelligence 
and  action,  but  by  raising  them  to  a  higher 
level,  and  imparting  to  them  a  greater  force. 
Genius  may  be  shown,  not  by  an  uprising  from 
the  unconscious,  but  by  an  intensification  of  the 
conscious.  It  may  be  exhibited  by  the  man  of 
science  in  a  profounder  vision  into  the  realities  of 
nature  and  human  society,  as  well  as  by  the 
highly-trained  artist  in  rising  above  the  level  of 
his  previous  work,  or  by  the  statesman  who 
succeeds  by  pains  and  thought  in  really  adapting 
legislation  to  the  natural  instincts  of  a  country. 
It  seems  to  be  at  bottom  insight ;  and  the  in¬ 
sight  may  be  a  result  of  the  fullest  working  of  the 
natural  powers  of  a  man,  as  well  as  of  a  sudden 
and  unforeseen  illumination. 

II 

One  of  the  greatest,  perhaps  the  very  greatest, 
of  all  the  difficulties  which  modern  Christianity 
has  to  face,  is  how  to  deal  with  religious  inspira¬ 
tion.  Theoretically,  the  distinctions  are  clear. 
We  have  to  discern  between  the  true  inner 
illumination  and  the  faulty  and  imperfect  ex¬ 
pressions  to  which  it  gives  rise.  The  former  is 
not  easily  tested,  and  can  only  be  satisfactorily 
judged  by  the  test  of  fruits.  The  latter  is  subject 


INSPIRATION  AND  REVELATION 


95 


to  the  ordinary  intellectual  and  critical  investiga¬ 
tions  of  mankind.  But  the  great  difficulty  is 
that  the  followers  of  the  inspired  person  do  not 
easily  admit  this  distinction.  His  inspiration 
and  its  expression  are  to  them  all  one  ;  and  they 
think  that  any  one  who  ventures  to  criticise  the 
expression  must  also  deny  the  inspiration.  The 
adherents  and  followers  of  the  prophet  will  have 
all  or  nothing.  Whatever  he  says  must  be 
accepted  bodily,  and  any  criticism  is  regarded 
as  an  attack  upon  the  genuineness  of  the  in¬ 
spiration.  Hence  arise  the  interminable  contro¬ 
versies  as  to  the  inspiration  and  infallibility  of 
the  Bible  and  the  Church. 

In  the  light  of  reason,  nothing  could  seem  more 
incongruous  than  any  doctrine  of  infallibility. 
For  everywhere,  among  things  to  be  known,  we 
find  a  multitude  of  probabilities  of  error  to  one  of 
truth.  The  wisest  man  will  hold  erroneous  views 
as  to  a  thousand  subjects  ;  and  his  whole  life  may 
be  devoted  to  a  gradual  elimination  of  what  is 
false,  and  a  pursuit  of  what  is  true. 

The  belief  in  infallibility,  whether  in  the  Bible, 
the  Church,  or  any  other  authority,  is  obviously 
not  based  upon  reason,  but  upon  an  emotion  of 
veneration.  Of  course,  it  may  be  blindly  accepted 
from  custom  or  from  social  influence.  But  when 
it  is  more  reasonably  held,  it  may  be  based  upon 
experience.  It  will  often  happen  that,  when  a 
man  is  following  his  own  opinion,  there  breaks  in 


96  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


upon  him  a  voice  from  some  high  source,  spoken 
or  written,  which  at  once  carries  him  away,  which 
makes  him  feel  that  his  own  opinion  is  super¬ 
ficial,  poor,  and  worthless,  and  that  the  new  light 
is  of  infinitely  greater  value.  He  follows  this 
light,  and  finds  that  it  has  led  him  to  truer 
thought  and  nobler  action  than  he  could  by 
himself  have  reached.  If  this  has  happened 
often,  his  view  of  the  inspired  voice  will  rise 
higher  and  higher,  until  he  follows  it  without 
hesitation  or  demur.  He  may  well  speak  of  it 
as  infallible.  But  what  he  really  means,  by  the 
phrase,  is  not  that  he  thinks  it  wholly  incapable 
of  error,  but  that  he  thinks  it  far  more  likely  to 
be  right  than  any  view  which  he  could  form  by 
the  exercise  of  his  own  judgment.  The  infalli¬ 
bility  will  be  limited,  no  doubt,  to  special  fields  ; 
for  no  man  can  deny  the  truths  which  he  learns 
by  actual  experience  in  the  world  at  the  bidding 
of  an  authority  however  venerable.  But  in 
matters  beyond  sense  and  daily  experience,  he 
will  rely  on  an  authority  which  he  has  tried  and 
not  found  wanting. 

An  intellectual  apprehension  of  the  nature  of 
inspiration,  revelation,  and  infallibility  is  not 
extremely  difficult.  But  when  an  individual  man, 
or  a  society  which  is  also  in  a  sense  an  individual, 
tries  to  guide  the  course  of  life  and  belief  amid 
the  facts  and  impulses  which  arise  out  of  in¬ 
spiration,  there  arise  the  greatest  difficulties. 


INSPIRATION  AND  REVELATION 


97 


Partly  these  come  of  the  differences  of  tempera¬ 
ment  and  tradition  and  education,  partly  of  the 
varied  experiences  met  in  the  course  of  living. 
I  may  glance  at  a  few  of  the  more  fundamental 
difficulties,  and  the  more  usual  way  of  meeting 
them. 

One  method  of  solution  of  the  general  problem 
was  brought  into  strong  light  by  the  French 
Modernists  in  recent  times.  It  lay  in  the  dis¬ 
tinction  between  doctrine  and  history  in  inspired 
literature,  especially  in  the  Bible.  The  Modernists 
accepted  the  claim  of  the  Roman  Curia  to  infalli¬ 
bility  in  the  matter  of  doctrine,  or  dogma  as  they 
preferred  to  call  it.  The  Church,  they  held,  had 
a  right  of  divine  origin  to  form  organisation,  to 
prescribe  rites  and  ceremonies,  and  even  to 
establish  dogmas  in  regard  to  moral  and  spiritual 
truth.  But  in  matters  of  history  it  had  no  right 
by  authority  to  impose  on  the  faithful  any  par¬ 
ticular  view.  The  history  recorded  in  the  Bible, 
and  the  history  of  the  Church,  must  be  judged  in 
the  light  of  recognised  canons  of  historic  research. 
The  distinction  is  luminous,  and  it  has  been  put 
forth  with  remarkable  lucidity  by  M.  Loisy. 
Unfortunately  the  Roman  Church  would  not, 
and  in  fact  could  not,  accept  it ;  the  Church 
claimed  the  right  to  fix  and  to  interpret  religious 
history  just  as  clearly  as  it  claimed  the  right  to 
formulate  doctrine.  And  indeed,  to  draw  a 
sharp  line  between  dogma  and  the  history  of 


98  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


doctrine,  Rome  held  to  be  impossible.  Moreover, 
it  is  clear  that  if  once  we  apply  our  critical 
faculties  in  the  field  of  religious  history,  we  must 
needs  apply  them  also  in  the  field  of  religious 
psychology,  and  so,  in  fact,  to  the  very  basis  of 
all  doctrine. 

In  the  Middle  Ages,  by  the  great  schoolmen,  a 
broad  line  was  drawn  between  secular  knowledge, 
in  regard  to  which  sense  and  experience  sufficiently 
inform  us,  and  religious  knowledge,  which  comes 
wholly  from  revelation.  But  however  strongly 
the  line  was  drawn,  it  could  not  be  wholly  satis¬ 
factory  or  final,  since  in  many  fields  of  knowledge 
secular  knowledge  or  science  clashed  with  the 
revelation  contained  in  the  Bible.  In  prosecuting 
and  condemning  Galileo,  the  Church  claimed 
supremacy  in  the  field  of  astronomy ;  and  if 
astronomy  fell  within  her  domain,  it  became  hard 
to  say  what  department  of  science  fell  outside  it. 

Since  in  more  recent  times  methods  almost  as 
rigorous  as  those  of  physical  science  have  been 
applied  in  the  field  of  psychology  and  sociology, 
those  studies  have  fallen  more  definitely  into  the 
class  of  natural  knowledge.  And  since  psychology 
is  usually  regarded  as  the  basis  of  religious  know¬ 
ledge,  no  kind  of  doctrine  can  hope  wholly  to 
escape  the  clutches  of  criticism. 

A  distinction  which  may  be  regarded  as  a 
parallel  to  the  mediaeval  distinction  between 
secular  and  religious  knowledge,  which  may. 


INSPIRATION  AND  REVELATION 


99 


indeed,  almost  be  considered  as  a  translation  of  it, 
is  still  possible,  if  we  adhere  to  the  activist  or 
pragmatist  scheme  of  thought.  This  is  the  dis¬ 
tinction  which  I  have  tried,  rather  by  suggestion 
and  analogy  than  by  strict  logic  and  definition, 
to  draw  between  the  oxygenic  and  the  nitrogenic 
elements  of  life.  Impulse,  energy,  initiative, 
moral  purpose,  belong  to  the  primal  active  prin¬ 
ciple  of  our  being,  and  may  well  be  compared  to 
oxygen.  Resistances  which  impede  or  limit  that 
energy,  the  physical  world,  organised  society,  the 
experiences  of  practical  life,  all  tend  to  direct  and 
control  it.  From  the  interplay  of  the  two 
elements  arises  the  world  of  knowledge  and  the 
world  of  conduct.  The  active  principle  is  mainly 
dependent  for  energy  and  even  for  direction  on 
the  inflow  from  the  unconscious,  on  inspiration. 
The  passive  or  resistant  element  is  there,  ever 
limiting  and  diluting,  but  in  it  we  do  not  trace 
any  direct  inspiration,  though  it  may  constantly 
be  the  cause  of  the  realisation  of  inspiration. 

We  have  thus,  in  a  manner,  two  worlds,  which 
theologians  have  called  the  world  of  grace  and 
the  world  of  nature.  To  the  former  inspiration 
naturally  belongs ;  it  is  the  country  of  the  divine 
ideas,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  of  the  Lord’s 
Prayer.  In  it  the  will  of  God  is  ever  done.  And 
the  highest  hope  of  the  Christian  is  in  some 
degree  or  some  respect  to  produce  an  image  of 
that  world  in  the  visible  and  sensible  frame  of 


100  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


things.  This  latter  world  is  that  called  in  the 
Gospels  the  kingdom  of  this  world.  Here  is  the 
realm  not  of  ends  but  of  means  ;  here  science 
rules,  and  all  things,  from  the  planets  downwards, 
move  in  regular  course  according  to  ascertainable 
laws. 

Between  the  two  realms  there  is  a  debatable 
frontier,  which  runs  through  the  region  of  per¬ 
sonality,  personality  which  may  by  grace  be 
raised  to  an  indefinite  height,  or  may  by  con¬ 
formity  to  evil  be  infinitely  degraded.  It  is 
for  the  personality  to  judge  of  the  pure  in¬ 
spiration  by  its  kindredship  to  the  divine  ideas. 
And  it  necessarily  falls  to  science  and  experience 
to  judge  of  the  outward  expressions  of  inspiration, 
to  separate  them  if  possible  from  their  prime 
source,  even  it  may  be  in  some  cases  to  find  for 
the  idea  an  expression  more  suitable  to  advanced 
knowledge  and  more  refined  feeling. 


CHAPTER  VI 


CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 

I 

There  are  two  ways  of  approaching  the  subject 
of  ethics.  The  first  may  be  called  the  static 
way.  It  approaches  the  subject  from  the  out¬ 
side,  and  tries  to  order  in  regular  series  our  duties 
to  ourselves,  our  family,  our  nation,  to  arrange 
their  hierarchies  and  to  reconcile  their  clashings. 
This  has  been  the  usual  way  of  approach  in  the 
past.  But  there  is  a  second  way,  which  we  may 
call  the  dynamic,  which  regards  men  not  as 
external  phenomena,  but  as  centres  of  force, 
developing  from  within.  In  following  this  method 
we  follow  lines  which  are  really  psychological, 
not  contenting  ourselves  with  the  surface  view 
of  things,  but  digging  downwards  towards  the 
ultimate  springs  of  action,  and  trying  to  estimate 
the  forces  which  have  brought  into  existence, 
and  which  sustain,  the  visible  activities  of  the 
world  and  of  mankind. 

It  is  clear  that  this  latter  way  of  approaching 

the  subject  of  Christian  ethics  is  that  suited  to 

the  present  work.  In  every  country  the  accepted 

code  of  ethics  is  the  result  of  forces,  good  and 

101 


102  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


evil,  which  have  played  upon  the  national  life. 
The  mere  fact  that  such  codes  exist  and  main¬ 
tain  themselves  shows  that  they  must  have 
relative  merit ;  but  they  are  never  perfect, 
indeed  usually  are  very  far  from  perfection.  But 
to  change  them  radically  and  suddenly  is  very 
difficult,  unless  in  times  when  society  has  had  rude 
shocks,  or  a  great  moral  awakening.  But  what 
is  possible  is  to  examine  them  in  a  reasonable  way. 
And  it  is  the  duty  of  every  one  to  do  what  he  can 
towards  performing  the  duties  laid  upon  him  by 
the  general  ethical  feeling,  and  to  try  to  raise 
the  standard  where  it  is  low  or  perverted. 

Leaving  out  of  account  the  religions  of  India 
and  China,  all  the  great  religions  which  have 
arisen  in  Europe  and  the  Near  East  have  repre¬ 
sented  doing  the  will  of  God  as  the  sum  of  morality. 
It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  cite  passages  from  the 
sacred  books  of  Judaism  and  Christianity  to  prove 
that  those  two  religions  take  up  this  attitude 
since  the  Jewish  Psalms,  and  the  Gospels  and 
Epistles  of  the  New  Testament  are  full  of  exhorta¬ 
tions  to  do  the  will  of  God,  and  of  descriptions  of 
the  goodness  and  the  happiness  of  those  who  do 
so.  In  the  Koran  the  duty  of  submitting  to,  and 
of  promoting  the  divine  will  is,  if  possible,  even 
more  prominent.  And  in  the  only  other  religion 
which  has  had  much  vogue  in  Europe,  that  of  the 
Stoic  philosophers  of  Greece  and  Rome,  the  sum 
of  virtue  is  represented  as  consisting  in  the 


CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 


103 


conformation  of  one’s  life  and  purposes  to  the 
world  order,  which  is  the  outward  manifestation 
of  the  divine  principle  in  the  world. 

But  although  all  religions  are  alike  in  accepting 
this  ultimate  principle,  they  approach  it  from 
different  sides,  and  vary  greatly  in  their  views 
as  to  the  practical  way  of  its  realisation.  In 
Islam,  the  great  stress  is  laid  on  dutiful  submission 

to  what  is  ordained  bv  the  divine  will.  In  Stoicism 

•/ 

also,  submission  is  the  chief  duty  of  man,  though 
this  religion  of  the  ancient  world  lays  more  stress 
than  any  of  the  Semitic  religions  on  the  intel¬ 
lectual  element.  To  learn  by  thought  and  con¬ 
templation  what  is  the  order  of  the  universe  to 
which  man  has  to  conform  is  put  in  the  fore¬ 
front.  In  the  Jewish  religion  the  stress  is  laid 
more  on  emotion  and  action,  on  love  of  God  and 
righteousness  of  life.  But  it  must  be  observed 
that  in  the  Wisdom  books.  Proverbs,  Ecclesias- 
ticus,  and  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  the  intel¬ 
lectual  element  is  very  prominent,  a  fact  which 
is  too  often  overlooked  by  Christians. 

It  is  evident  that  as  man  has  a  threefold  nature, 
intellectual,  emotional,  and  volitional,  the  subject 
of  the  Divine  Will  may  be  approached  from  each 
if  these  sides.  A  man  has  to  learn  what  is  the 
will  of  God,  he  has  to  admire  and  to  love  it,  and 
he  is  able  to  direct  his  purposes  and  endeavours 
in  such  a  way  as  to  promote  it  in  the  world 
around.  And  it  makes  the  greatest  difference  to 


104  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


his  religion  which  of  these  lines  of  approach  is 
with  him  primary,  and  which  only  secondary. 

But  men  do  not  approach  the  Divine  Will  from 
without,  as  they  approach  phenomena  in  the 
visible  world,  but  from  an  inner  impulse  which 
works  within  and  through  them.  The  ground 
of  the  whole  universe,  so  far  as  we  can  discover 
it,  is  a  constantly  working  energy  which  has  by 
degrees  moulded  the  world  to  what  it  is,  an  impulse 
to  life  and  activity,  which  is  discovered  in  the 
life  of  plants  and  animals,  and  still  more  in  the 
activities  and  energies  of  men.  It  works  ever  in 
the  direction  of  the  ideal, — ideal  beauty  in  the  case 
of  nature,  ideal  truth  and  virtue  in  the  human 
world.  But  this  ideal  is  approached  but  slowly 
through  long  ages  of  striving  ;  it  is  not  easily 
attained.  There  are  constant  hindrances,  and 
forces  continually  opposing.  Why  evil  exists  we 
can  no  more  discover  than  why  we  ourselves 
exist.  To  deny  the  existence  of  evil  may  be 
attempted  by  a  paradoxical  philosophy  ;  but  no 
sane  person  would  really  take  such  a  view. 
Every  day  and  all  day  we  are  struggling  against 
evil,  against  ugliness  and  falsehood  and  sin,  and 
we  know  that  we  should  never  get  the  better  of 
them  but  for  the  power  which  works  within  us, 
which  we  are  able,  if  we  choose,  to  defy  and 
disobey,  but  which  all  the  time  we  feel  to  be  a 
better  inspiration. 

The  supreme  task  of  every  man  in  the  world 


CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 


105 


is  to  learn  what  is  good  and  what  is  evil,  to  love 
the  good  and  hate  the  evil,  to  do  the  good  and 
avoid  the  evil. 

To  approach  the  subject  of  conduct  from  the 
side  of  observation  and  intelligence,  to  discover 
the  nature  of  good  and  evil  action,  has  been  in 
all  ages  the  task  of  moral  philosophy,  ever  since 
the  greatest  of  iconoclasts,  Socrates,  exposed 
remorselessly  the  hollowness  and  insufficiency  of 
the  notions  of  good  and  evil  accepted  by  the  people 
of  Athens.  His  chief  task  was  to  show  that  this 
superficial  code  was  self-contradictory  and  impos¬ 
sible  to  justify  to  the  reason.  And  a  great 
series  of  philosophers,  following  in  his  steps, 
approached  the  questions  of  good  and  evil  in  a 
logical  and  metaphysical  way,  some  with  greater 
and  some  with  less  success. 

In  his  well-known  Essay  on  Lord  Bacon, 
Macaulay  has  contrasted  the  results  of  the 
moral  philosophy  of  the  schools  with  those  of 
the  experimental  science  of  modern  times.  The 
former  he  contemns  as  empty  verbiage  ;  the  latter 
he  praises  as  a  continuous  attempt  to  minister  to 
the  comfort  of  human  beings,  to  the  multiplica¬ 
tion  of  the  enjoyments  and  the  diminution  of 
the  sufferings  of  life.  Of  course,  no  one  could 
maintain  that  science  has  not  largely  succeeded 
in  this  purpose,  especially  medical  science.  But 
few  people  who  reflect,  with  the  memory  of 
recent  years  and  the  facts  of  modern  life  fresh 


106  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


in  their  minds,  would  venture  to  regard  the 
progress  of  physical  science  as  a  panacea  for  the 
woes  of  humanity.  We  have  seen  too  much  of 
the  perversion  of  science  to  purposes  of  slaughter 
and  destruction,  too  much  of  its  insufficiency  to 
raise  the  level  of  real  happiness,  to  believe  that 
it  is  capable  by  itself  of  bringing  in  an  ideal 
state  of  society.  And  on  the  other  side  we  see 
the  absurdity  of  condemning  moral  philosophy 
because  it  is  not  progressive  in  the  sense  in 
which  physical  science  is  progressive.  We  can 
greatly  change  our  physical  environment ;  but 
human  nature  changes  but  very  slowly,  and  the 
ethical  ideas  and  inspirations  of  the  great  moral¬ 
ists  of  all  ages  are  full  of  value  and  of  instruction 
for  us.  In  every  age  there  are  voices  which  bid 
us  aim  not  only  at  comfort  but  at  ideal  good  ; 
and  if  those  voices  were  silenced,  the  world  would 
soon  begin  to  retrogress  towards  savagery. 
Science,  as  such,  is  quite  as  ready  to  further  the 
schemes  of  devils  as  the  divine  ideas.  A  good 
man  will  use  the  discoveries  of  physical  science 
to  help  his  fellow-men  ;  but  a  bad  man  will  use 
those  discoveries  to  destroy  them.  And  the 
mass  of  mankind,  who  are  neither  conspicuously 
good  nor  conspicuously  bad,  will  simply  use  the 
conveniences  of  life  as  they  multiply,  without 
being  in  any  serious  way  the  better  and  happier, 
or  the  worse  and  more  degraded,  in  consequence 
of  them.  On  the  whole,  unless  used  in  accord- 


CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 


107 


ance  with  the  laws  of  God  and  man,  they  tend  to 
produce  that  restlessness  and  discontent,  that 
drifting  away  from  old  anchorages  without  find¬ 
ing  new  ones,  which  is  so  marked  a  feature  of 
our  age. 

In  a  high  degree  the  ethical  philosophers 
purify  the  blood  of  the  world,  check  growing 
fanaticisms,  show  the  reasonableness  of  goodness, 
encourage  love  of  purity,  of  duty,  and  of  honour. 

But  the  great  defect  of  all  systems  of  ethics 
based  on  reason  and  contemplation  is  that  they 
comparatively  seldom  lead  to  vigorous  action. 
Psychology  easily  explains  this  when  it  shows 
that  by  its  very  nature  contemplative  thought 
is  an  impediment  to  action.  Thought  can  only 
come  in  when  action  is  delayed  and  thwarted. 
And  in  the  same  way  thought  is  hostile  to  emotion, 
which  is  the  element  which  gives  energy  and  force 
to  action.  For  such  reasons  ethical  philosophy 
must  always  influence  the  educated  few  rather 
than  the  many.  In  an  age  like  ours  when  demo¬ 
cracy  has  become  far  more  powerful,  and  even 
claims  universal  sway,  it  is  exceedingly  hard  for 
even  the  soundest  thinkers  to  gain  power  over  the 
motive  forces  of  the  nation.  They  may  speak 
most  reasonably,  but  they  have  no  way  of  gaining 
influence.  The  mass  of  mankind  have  no  time  to 
listen  to  reason,  and  no  wish  to  listen  to  it,  if 
feeling  or  interest  urge  them  in  another  direction. 
Hence,  although  ethical  philosophy  can  never 


108  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


become  wholly  powerless,  since  it  is  or  ought  to 
be  based  on  fact  and  reality  ;  and  although  it  may 
often  be  able  to  restrain  a  definitely  immoral 
tendency  in  conduct,  yet  it  is  obliged  to  pass  on 
the  task  of  leading  popular  opinion  to  some  of 
the  various  enthusiasms,  religious  and  social, 
which  have  more  hold  on  the  conscience  and  the 
heart. 

Most  modern  schemes  of  ethics  are  in  a  greater 
or  less  degree  pervaded  by  the  utilitarian  principle. 
This  is  a  natural  result  of  the  dominance  in 
thought  of  the  methods  of  physical  science. 
The  most  obvious  and  simple  way  of  judging  of 
actions  is  to  consider  their  consequences  ;  and 
in  that  way  one  can  find  definite  evidence  for  and 
against  them.  Ever  since  the  time  of  Bentham, 
utilitarian  reasoning  has  been  more  and  more  in 
use  in  matters  of  law  and  legislation.  But  the 
great  difficulty  and  danger  of  utilitarian  reason¬ 
ing,  outside  a  very  narrow  field,  is  that  by  an 
inevitable  tendency  it  is  led  to  assign  most  weight 
to  what  is  obvious  and  insistent,  what  can  be 
clearly  set  forth,  what  can  be  with  some  accuracy 
weighed  and  measured.  It  is  not  that  the 
principle  of  utilitarianism  leads  necessarily  to 
this  result :  but  it  is  a  result  which  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  avoid  in  practice.  One  may  take 
the  word  utility  in  a  lower  or  higher,  a  more 
materialist  or  more  spiritual  way.  Taking  it 
at  its  highest,  the  useful  is  the  same  as  the  ethic- 


CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 


109 


ally  good.  But  if  we  so  read  utility,  the  intro^ 
duction  of  it  into  the  reasoning  does  not  help  : 
it  is  a  mere  change  of  words.  But  it  is  inevitable 
that  the  desire  to  give  clearness  and  practical 
value  to  his  conclusions,  must  draw  the  utili¬ 
tarian  constantly  in  the  direction  of  the  material 
and  the  obvious.  Man’s  need  of  food  and  of 
clothing,  of  a  comfortable  home  and  reasonable 
recreation,  is  so  clear,  that  such  immaterial  and 
imponderable  things  as  religion  and,  for  that 
matter,  happiness  itself,  are  likely  to  be  under¬ 
valued,  or  even  overlooked.  It  was  simply  by 
giving  way  to  this  tendency  that  Bentham 
reached  such  definite  results.  Anyone  who  denied 
his  scale  of  utilities  would  necessarily  give  up  his 
system,  which  no  doubt  had  its  value  in  questions 
of  law  and  legislation,  but  had  little  value  in  the 
more  complicated  conduct  of  daily  life.  Even 
John  Stuart  Mill,  for  all  his  noble  ideals,  was 
through  his  early  training  made  a  victim  to  the 
same  tendency,  and  was  frequently  led  into 
sophistry,  especially  in  that  astoundingly  one¬ 
sided  work.  The  Subjection  of  Women, 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  great  precept  of 
Christianity,  “Ye  shall  know  them  by  their  fruits,” 
adopts  the  utilitarian  principle.  And  in  a  sense 
it  does  so.  It  sanctions  the  appeal  to  experience 
and  fact  for  moral  principles.  But  it  avoids  the 
great  danger  of  utilitarian  ethics  by  retaining 
the  ideas  of  good  and  evil.  It  does  not  think  of 


no  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


fruits  as  useful,  but  as  good  or  bad,  sound  or 
corrupt.  No  one,  according  to  Christianity,  is 
saved  by  merely  giving  intellectual  assent  to 
ethical  teaching,  but  by  practising  it  in  the 
world. 

The  kingdom  of  heaven  opens  to  those  who 
not  only  know  but  do  the  will  of  God.  If  we 
know  the  will  of  God  and  love  it,  we  shall  cer¬ 
tainly  do  it.  But  the  two  roads  of  knowing  and 
loving  start  differently,  and  in  most  of  their 
course  are  independent. 

Most  of  great  religions  of  the  world  have  started 
from  authority.  Judaism  has  an  ordered  and 
authoritative  exposition  of  ethics  in  the  Penta¬ 
teuch,  Islam  in  the  Koran.  These  codes  are 
vastly  superior  to  the  mere  customary  and  tribal 
morality  which  they  superseded  ;  they  represent 
a  sudden  raising  of  the  ethical  standard.  Most 
people  would  allow  that  the  Mosaic  code  marked 
a  great  advance  on  the  current  morality  of  the 
heathen  nations  of  Canaan,  the  tribes  whom 
Joshua  subdued.  That  the  code  of  Mohammed 
also  marked  an  advance  on  the  religion  of  the 
tribes  of  Arabia  is  less  generally  realised.  Many 
people  are  so  shocked  at  one  particular  institution 
of  Islam,  polygamy,  that  they  are  blinded  to  the 
excellence  of  many  sides  of  the  religion.  But  the 
historians  who  have  studied  the  origin  of  that 
religion  have  highly  estimated  its  moral  value. 
And  travellers  in  the  Near  East  who  have  come 


CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 


111 


into  contact  with  Mohammedans  always  speak 
highly  of  the  character  of  many  of  them.  In  the 
history  of  Islam,  as  in  that  of  Christianity,  there 
have  been  frequent  reformations,  as  sages  and 
saints  have  turned  back  from  the  corruption 
around  them  to  the  purity  of  the  pristine  faith. 
And  as  J.  H.  Newman  has  well  observed,  we 
cannot  wholly  deny  the  inspiration  of  a  religion 
which  has  been  so  firm  a  bond  of  soeiety  and 
so  greatly  promoted  brotherly  feeling  among 
believers.  There  have  been  times  in  the  history 
of  the  world  when  the  Mohammedan  states  were 
superior  to  the  Christian  alike  in  ethies  and  in 
intellectual  enlightenment.  Nevertheless,  both 
Judaism  and  Islam  are,  by  the  very  fact  that  they 
are  religions  of  authority,  and  so  incapable  of 
conforming  to  the  intellectual  and  social  changes 
in  their  surroundings,  put  out  of  court  as  religions 
of  the  future. 

Christianity  is  also,  in  a  measure,  a  religion  of 
authority,  since  it  has  sacred  books  and  definite 
organisations.  But  it  differs  from  Judaism  and 
Islam,  in  that  what  is  laid  down  by  authority  is 
not  a  detailed  code  of  practices,  but  the  assertion 
of  principles  and  ideals.  Very  often,  as  indeed  in 
Central  Africa  at  the  present  time,  this  fact  puts 
the  higher  religion  at  a  disadvantage  as  compared 
with  the  lower.  But  Christianity  has  after  all 
the  enormous  advantage  that  it  can  change,  can 
[  evolve  in  the  direction  of  the  ideal.  It  is  free 


112  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


from  the  bondage  of  the  letter,  and  free  to  take 
in  the  fresh  revelations  of  the  Divine  Spirit. 

II 

The  Founder  of  Christianity  not  only  laid  down 
the  principle  that  beliefs  must  be  judged  by  their 
fruits,  but  also  repeatedly  showed  how  a  con¬ 
sideration  of  the  facts  of  nature  and  of  human 
society  can  enlighten  us  as  to  the  will  of  God.  He 
constantly  compares  the  facts  of  the  life  of  the 
spirit  to  those  of  the  visible  world.  Such  com¬ 
parisons  are  no  mere  illustrative  analogies,  but 
the  result  of  a  marvellous  insight,  which  saw 
how  the  laws  of  the  universe  are  fundamentally 
the  same  in  the  domain  of  the  visible  and  the 
invisible. 

I  may  cite  a  few  of  the  many  sayings  of  the 
Saviour  which  are  of  this  kind.  “  When  it  is 
evening,  ye  say.  It  will  be  fair  weather,  for  the 
heaven  is  red.  And  in  the  morning  it  will  be 
foul  weather  to-day,  for  the  heaven  is  red  and 
lowering.  Ye  know  how  to  discern  the  face  of 
the  heaven,  but  ye  cannot  discern  the  signs  of 
the  times.”  Among  city  dwellers  the  face  of  the 
heavens  does  not  attract  much  attention ;  but 
anyone  used  to  going  abroad  at  all  times  and 
seasons  may  find  constant  analogies  between  it 
and  the  dealings  of  God  with  men.  If  one  regards 
sun  and  rain,  wind  and  storm,  from  a  merely  un¬ 
sympathetic  point  of  view,  one  may  find  little  but 


CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 


113 


disappointment ;  but  if  one  looks  at  them  with 
patienee  and  endurance,  they  may  become  a 
school  of  hope  and  a  constant  inspiration  of  con¬ 
duct.  In  another  place  the  Saviour  reads  the 
parable  of  the  fig-tree.  “  When  her  branch  is 
now  become  tender,  and  putteth  forth  its  leaves, 
ye  know  that  the  summer  is  nigh.”  And  again, 
‘‘  Do  men  gather  grapes  of  thorns  or  figs  of 
thistles  ?  Even  so,  every  good  tree  bringeth 
forth  good  fruit,  but  the  corrupt  tree  bringeth 
forth  evil  fruit.”  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
frequently  spoken  of,  not  as  a  cataclysm  suddenly 
revealed,  but  as  a  state  of  society  which  grows 
naturally.  ‘‘  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like 
unto  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  which  a  man  took 
and  sowed  in  his  field.”  Ultimately  it  is  the 
same  power,  which  brings  the  plant  out  of  the 
seed,  which  guides  societies  in  the  way  to  a 
nobler  life,  and  which  urges  individuals  to  do 
something  to  promote  the  working  of  the  divine 
will. 

As  we  have  a  far  wider  knowledge  of  natural 

law  than  existed  at  the  time  of  the  origin  of 

Christianity,  we  might  expect  that  the  field  from 

which  such  analogies  as  these  are  drawn  would 

be  in  our  time  vastly  increased.  And  this  is 

certainly  the  case.  Wordsworth,  for  example,  is 

always  watching  nature  and  finding  in  it  hints  of 

moral  and  spiritual  truths.  Since  Wordsworth 

wrote,  the  hurry  and  stress  of  modern  life  has 

8 


114  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


made  the  discernment  of  the  spiritual  in  the 
natural  less  possible ;  but  some  writers,  such  as 
Maeterlinck,  carry  on  the  same  line  of  thought. 

As  regards  the  deducing  of  ethical  principle 
from  surveys  of  history,  we  are  obviously  at  a 
great  advantage  as  compared  with  the  Jewish 
teachers  of  Christianity.  For  them  real  objec¬ 
tive  history,  the  tale  of  the  rise  and  decay  of 
nations  and  states,  hardly  existed;  they  saw  the 
past  through  a  mirage  of  national  prejudice  ;  and 
the  myth-making  tendency  was  still  dominant. 
Before  us  now  there  lies  an  almost  infinite  series 
of  views  into  the  past,  in  which  the  consequences 
of  national  virtues  and  national  sins  are  written 
large  for  our  edification.  Not,  of  course,  that  it 
is  ever  possible  to  deduce  principles  of  action, 
individual  or  social,  from  the  mere  contemplation 
of  past  history.  Views  of  history  cannot  give  us 
ideals ;  but  when  we  have  before  us  the  ideals, 
history  can  instruct  us  with  infinite  wisdom  in 
what  ways  these  ideals  may  best  be  attained, 
and  how  the  hindrances  to  them  may  be  removed. 
But  in  the  simple  minds  of  the  first  Christians 
such  perspectives  did  not  exist ;  only  in  the 
history  of  the  Jewish  race  they  saw  the  lines  of 
good  and  evil  drawn  in  harsh  outline,  with  little 
light  and  shade. 

It  is  by  analogy  and  by  parable,  rather  than  by 
any  regular  reasoning,  that  the  Saviour  proceeds 
when  he  maps  out  the  ways  of  conduct.  No 


CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 


115 


doubt  he  accepts  the  ten  commandments  and  the 
current  rules  of  social  conduct.  Sometimes,  as 
when  he  speaks  of  divorce,  he  deliberately  amends 
them  in  virtue  of  his  personal  inspiration.  He 
does  not  treat  the  Jewish  law  of  conduct  as  final 
or  infallible.  Mere  external  rules  of  action  he 
treats  so  lightly  that  most  hearers  of  his  sayings 
do  not  realise  that  he  conformed  in  practice  to  the 
commands  of  the  Pentateuch.  For  example,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that,  like  all  Jews,  he  had  a  strong 
repulsion  to  the  eating  of  animals  technically  un¬ 
clean,  yet  most  Christians  have  no  scruple  in  eating 
such,  and  do  not  realise  how  far  they  therein  depart 
from  the  mind  of  their  Master.  He  taught  the 
unimportance  of  the  merely  external  so  effectively 
that,  so  far  as  I  know,  there  is  no  Church  which  tries 
strictly  to  mould  the  daily  life  so  as  to  conform 
to  his.  It  was,  he  taught,  not  that  which  affected 
the  life  from  the  outside  which  raised  or  debased 
a  man,  but  that  which  came  from  the  heart,  and 
so  moulded  the  mind  and  the  body. 

Thus  his  appeal  was  not  to  any  code,  nor  to 
any  system  of  ethics,  but  to  the  spirit.  And  in 
a  way  which  cannot  be  mistaken  he  founded  his 
ethics  on  inner  impulses,  on  two  emotions  which 
he  laid  at  the  root  of  all  goodness, — first,  love  of 
God ;  and  second,  love  of  man.  But  of  these  he 
regarded  the  former  as  by  far  the  more  important ; 
love  of  man,  however  much  it  might  be  essential 
to  the  due  tone  of  intercourse  between  man  and 


116  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


man,  was  after  all  only  a  consequence  and 
corollary  of  the  love  of  God.  A  man  should  love 
God  with  every  power  of  his  nature,  mind  and 
heart  and  will,  to  the  very  utmost  of  his  powers  ; 
but  it  would  be  enough  if  he  loved  his  neighbour 
as  himself. 

No  one  has  so  clearly  and  eloquently  expounded 
these  phrases  as  the  author  of  Ecce  Homo!  He 
shows  that  in  the  love  of  God  is  included  the  love 
of  the  divine  element  which  exists  in  every  man. 
It  is  because  men  are  children  of  the  same  Father 
in  heaven  that  they  are  in  the  highest  sense 
brothers.  The  love  of  God  kindles  a  flame  which 
becomes  an  enthusiasm  of  humanity,  a  Are  never 
extinguished,  because  however  low  a  man  or 
woman  may  fall,  however  they  may  sink  into  the 
ocean  of  crime  or  the  morass  of  swinishness,  they 
can  never  wholly  destroy  the  divine  element 
within  them.  And  the  divine  element  is  that 
which  Christians  should  love  with  every  power  of 
their  being ;  and  which  they  would  wish  to 
rescue  and  redeem  at  any  cost. 

There  could  not  be  a  greater  contrast  than 
exists  between  a  love  which  contains  so  much  of 
the  divine  and  the  ideal,  and  such  love  as  com¬ 
monly  exists  in  the  world,  which  often  satisfies 
philanthropists,  and  which  has  no  doubt  led  to 
much  practical  beneficence,  the  love  which  is 
content  with  improving  the  external  conditions 
of  life,  providing  better  food,  better  houses. 


CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 


II7 


lighter  hours  of  work,  and  not  troubling  about  a 
better  condition  of  spirit.  No  doubt  much  or 
most  of  the  improvement  of  visible  conditions 
has  been  the  result  of  the  activities  of  really 
Christian  natures,  who  have  seen  that  tolerable 
conditions  make  the  life  of  the  spirit  easier,  while 
dirt  and  hunger  tend  to  quench  it.  But  no  man 
who  had  anything  of  the  spirit  of  Christ  would 
be  content  with  reforms  which  only  touch  the 
outside  of  life. 

Christian  ethics  are  based  upon  two  great  facts 
or  laws  of  psychology,  which  hold  everywhere. 
The  first  of  these  is  that  life  works  from  within 
outwards,  not  from  without  inwards.  The  second 
is,  that  the  springs  of  action  are  far  more  easily 
moved  by  emotion  than  by  reasoning.  Not,  of 
course,  that  emotion  necessarily  leads  to  good 
action.  Indeed,  history  shows  that  a  life  full  of 
energy  and  success  may  owe  its  impulse  to  private 
ambition,  to  covetousness,  or  even  to  an  un¬ 
quenchable  hatred.  Wherever  there  is  a  possible 
good  to  be  attained,  there  is  a  possible  evil  to  be 
wrought.  But  if  we  assume  with  Christ  that 
love  is  better  than  hate,  that  it  is  our  business  in 
the  world  to  promote  good  and  resist  evil,  then 
the  conformity  of  his  teaching  as  to  the  ways  to 
accomplish  these  purposes  to  the  ultimate  laws 
of  human  nature  makes  Christianity  an  intensely 
practical  religion. 

The  practical  basis  of  Christian  ethics  is  most 


118  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


definitely  set  forth  in  the  saying  that  if  a  man 
is  anxious  to  do  the  will  of  God,  he  will  know 
whether  his  ethical  principle  is  good  or  bad. 
Here  we  have  the  clearest  antithesis  to  the  way 
of  the  moral  philosophers  who  seek,  whether 
by  a  setting  forth  of  metaphysical  principle, 
or  by  use  of  the  utilitarian  method,  to  work  out 
schemes  of  virtue.  And  the  Christian  teaching  is 
thoroughly  sound  and  scientific,  if  we  grant  the 
activist  principle  of  life,  if  we  hold  that  human 
action  is  from  within  outwards.  If  action  can 
only  be  vigorous,  and  in  a  higher  sense  successful, 
when  it  is  in  accord  with  the  impulse  of  the  general 
life,  and  the  tendency  of  the  Power  that  makes 
for  righteousness ;  if  action  precedes  and  dominates 
thought,  rather  than  thought  action,  then  we  see 
clearly  that  right  doing  will  cause  right  thinking. 
It  is  in  the  turning  of  the  scales  of  will  that  thought 
is  born  ;  and  if  the  scales  are  rightly  turned,  the 
thought  will  be  right. 

No  doubt  this  view  needs  some  guarding. 
For  it  cannot  be  held  that  well-meaning  in  itself 
will  lead  to  right  action  ;  every  one  knows  how 
often  good  intention  accompanies  foolish  and 
pernicious  action.  By  the  phrase,  ‘‘  being  willing 
to  do  the  will  of  God,”  the  Saviour  means  some¬ 
thing  far  less  superficial  and  obvious  than  having 
good  intentions.  He  means  being  in  the  depths 
of  the  heart  at  one  with  the  divine  will,  having 
purposes  in  conformity,  not  with  mere  benevol- 


CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 


119 


ence  and  good  nature,  but  with  those  divine  ideas 
which  are  ever  working  beneath  the  surface  of 
human  life.  This  is  a  state  not  to  be  easily  or 
quickly  attained,  only  to  be  approached  by  long 
self-discipline  and  striving, — in  a  word,  by  attain¬ 
ing  to  the  love  of  God.  As  love  of  friend  or 
neighbour  will  greatly  enlighten  our  eyes  as  to 
their  character  and  disposition,  unless  perverted 
by  unworthy  elements,  so  the  love  of  God  will 
lead  to  a  knowledge  of  the  character  and  purposes 
of  God,  and  so  to  the  highest  ethical  level. 

But  it  is  clear  that  mankind  in  general  live  at 
a  lower  level  than  this,  which  one  may  call  the 
“  oxygenic  ”  kind  of  life.  We  stumble  along  as 
best  we  can  through  the  swamps  and  deserts  of 
life  ;  we  do  not  fly  above  it.  And  therefore,  in 
ordinary  practice,  we  do  not  reach  first  principles. 
The  consideration  of  the  consequences  of  action ; 
principles  accepted  by  the  society  in  which  we 
live,  or  by  any  Church  of  which  we  are  adherents  ; 
natural  kindly  feeling,  may  all  serve  us,  not  as 
ideal  guides,  but  as  signposts  of  which  it  is  wise 
to  take  account.  But  the  ideal  is  still  there  ; 
and  the  nearer  we  come  to  it  the  better  for  our 
higher  life. 


CHAPTER  VII 


THE  DIVINE  FATHER 

God  and  Human  Personality 

I  WILL  sketch  the  implications  of  such  views  as 
I  have  above  suggested,  upon  religious  belief  as 
to  God,  and  Christ,  and  the  Communion  of  Saints. 
But  first  I  will  try  to  show  that  such  views  have 
been  the  essential  Christian  belief  from  the  very 
first,  though  they  have  been  overlaid  by  many 
temporary  forms  and  expressions. 

God  is  the  source  of  all  things,  visible  and 
invisible,  and  the  Father  of  men,  and  in  a  higher 
sense  the  Father  of  Christ.  As  transcendent, 
God  is  the  originator  and  sustainer  of  life,  and  of 
all  the  conditions  of  life.  His  eternal  working  has 
led  mankind  to  the  assumption  of  those  condi¬ 
tions,  those  forms,  as  Kant  puts  it,  which  make 
perception  and  experience  possible,  that  is  to 
say,  space  as  the  condition  of  a  visible  and 
material  universe,  time  as  the  condition  of  the 
successive  manifestations  of  life.  Thus  has  been 
prepared  the  framework  through  which  the 
divine  energy  works. 

Of  course,  the  ancient  cosmological  idea  of  the 

Babylonians  and  the  Hebrews  that  God  at  a 

120 


GOD  AND  HUMAN  PERSONALITY  121 


definite  time  brought  order  out  of  chaos  and 
created  the  ancestors  of  the  existing  races  of 
plants  and  animals,  has  passed  into  the  realm  of 
mythology.  We  can  now  look  back  through 
almost  infinite  ages,  and  see  how,  through  the 
constant  working  of  an  Inner  power,  by  the  pro¬ 
cess  of  evolution,  living  things  gradually  came 
into  being,  and  grew  less  and  less  ungainly  and 
crude,  until  at  last  they  became  a  world  full  of 
beauty  and  charm.  But  the  manner  of  becoming 
makes  no  difference  as  to  the  eternal  source. 
We  even  freely  use  the  word  Creator,  though  the 
meaning  we  attach  to  it  is  very  different  from  the 
meaning  in  which  it  was  used  by  those  who 
formulated  early  beliefs.  And  God,  as  the  foun¬ 
tain-head  of  life  and  energy,  as  the  source  of  the 
striving  of  all  things  to  fulfil  the  law  of  their 
being,  stands  on  an  immeasurably  higher  plane 
than  the  great  artificer  of  the  ancient  religions 
who  made  order  out  of  chaos  at  a  definite  moment 
of  history. 

But  modern  religion  turns  more  and  more 
from  the  author  of  the  world  to  the  immanent 
Deity,  the  God  with  whom  men  can  have  spiritual 
communion,  who  stands  in  contact,  actual  or 
possible,  with  the  spirits  of  men ;  the  creator  of 
things  invisible.  Mankind  has  learned  to  recog¬ 
nise  that  there  exists,  in  and  around  us,  an  infinite 
well-spring  of  energy  which  works  not  in  defiance 
of,  but  through,  the  wills  of  men.  That  energy 


122  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


is  like  a  stream  flowing  through  a  thirsty  land 
whieh  can  only  yield  its  fruit  when  irrigated  ; 
the  human  will  is  the  sluice-gate  through  which, 
when  it  is  opened,  the  fertilising  water  flows  into 
each  fleld.  But  we  are  all  very  much  under  the 
sway  of  sense.  So,  whereas  no  cultivator  remains 
ignorant  of  the  source  of  the  supply  of  the  water 
he  needs,  many  of  us  are  ignorant  or  unheeding 
of  the  source  whence  comes  into  our  lives  the 
divine  blessing  of  spiritual  power.  “  The  God  in 
whose  hand  thy  breath  is,  and  whose  are  all  thy 
ways,  hast  thou  not  glorified.”  The  recognition 
of  divine  help,  of  favour  and  grace,  has  given  rise 
to  the  higher  religions,  each  of  which  interprets 
it  in  a  different  way,  usually  in  close  connection 
with  its  own  historic  origin. 

This  is  a  true  view  of  the  relation  of  God  to 
man  ;  but  it  is  a  one-sided  and  incomplete  view. 
For  God  is  not  a  giver  only,  nor  man  a  receiver 
only.  Man  is  not  a  mere  parasite  :  for  it  is  one 
of  the  surest  laws  of  the  living  world  that  any 
being  which  is  merely  parasitic  begins  at  once  to 
shrivel  and  degenerate.  Man  can  give  to  God, 
as  well  as  take  from  him.  He  does  so  by  means 
of  that  marvellous  power  of  volition,  of  self- 
determination,  which  is  one  of  the  fundamental 
facts  of  the  universe.  Every  time  that  man  puts 
himself  on  the  side  of  God,  and  acts  according 
to  the  will  of  God,  he  strengthens  that  will. 
The  spiritual  world  being  a  whole,  and  all  the 


GOD  AND  HUMAN  PERSONALITY  123 


parts  inter-connected,  no  motion  can  be  set  up  in 
any  part  of  it  but  the  results  spread  outwards, 
as  the  ripples  in  a  river  spread  outwards  when  a 
stone  is  thrown  into  it.  Thus  no  man  can  work 
on  the  side  of  goodness  but  he  increases  the  force 
of  goodness  in  the  world,  and  makes  it  easier  for 
all  other  men  and  women  to  do  what  is  right. 
We  see  clearly  every  day  that  right  doing  in  the 
world  is  a  contagious  power,  and  helps  right 
doing  ;  and  we  may  believe  that  that  which  takes 
place  in  the  visible  world  is  paralleled  and  re¬ 
inforced  by  that  which  takes  place  in  the  invisible 
world  which  lies  beneath  what  is  visible. 

Thus  there  is  a  partnership  between  God  and 
man  in  the  realm  of  conduct.  God  inspires  man 
with  the  desire  to  do  what  is  righteous,  and  gives 
him  strength  for  carrying  out  his  desire,  strength 
in  the  inner  man.  And  man  in  return,  by  a  will¬ 
ing  obedience  to  the  divine  impulse,  fortifies 
that  impulse  and  helps  to  moralise  the  world. 
And  when  conduct  aimed  at  the  ideal  brings  upon 
a  man  suffering,  as  it  so  often  does,  the  power  of 
God  lightens  the  suffering  and  enables  a  man 
to  bear  it.  Nay,  more,  though  this  is  a  doctrine 
which  can  only  be  accepted  by  that  strain  on  the 
will  which  is  called  faith,  God  even  suffers  with  man, 
bears  a  part  of  his  burden.  With  human  afflic¬ 
tion  he  is  afflicted,  and  over  the  deeds  of  courage, 
self-sacrifice,  self-control,  which  are  the  life-blood 
of  the  world,  we  may  believe  that  he  rejoices. 


124  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


If  in  previous  paragraphs  I  have  seemed  to 
undervalue  personality  by  not  speaking  of  it 
as  an  eternal  and  indestruetible  monad,  surely  I 
make  amends  by  suggesting  for  it  a  magnifieent 
part  in  the  active  world  of  humanity  and  of 
conduct.  I  do  not  represent  it  as  living  to  itself 
like  a  beautiful  flower,  but  as  passing  like  the 
flower  into  the  stage  of  fruit,  as  forming  itself 
in  order  that  it  may  be  a  support  and  help  of  God 
in  the  everlasting  strife  with  evil.  To  some  this 
subordination  to  the  unseen  may  appear  harsh, 
and  too  severe  for  most  men  to  appreciate.  But 
such  a  view  overlooks  the  fact  that  by  the  very 
constitution  of  the  universe  all  happiness  comes 
to  creatures  when  they  fulfil  the  law  of  their 
being,  and  further  life.  The  crudest  delights, 
such  as  enjoyment  of  food  and  drink,  are  of  this 
kind,  as  are  the  delights  of  sex,  the  ultimate 
source  of  most  of  the  world’s  rapture.  It  is  the 
same  in  the  higher  sphere.  It  is  of  the  very 
essence  of  the  spiritual  world  that  by  doing  the 
will  of  God  we  should  ever  grow  more  vigorous, 
more  healthy,  and  more  happy  ;  and  by  opposing 
it  we  should  be  stunted  and  blighted. 

This  is  the  essence  of  the  Christian  faith  as 
set  forth  in  the  earliest  documents  of  Christianity, 
and  as  embodied,  often  in  grossly  materialised 
and  even  grotesque  forms,  in  the  popular  beliefs 
of  mediaeval  and  modern  Europe.  There  are 
aberrations  from  it  to  the  right  and  the  left, 


JEWISH  AND  GREEK  CONCEPTIONS  OF  GOD  125 


strange  crystallisations  of  it  in  creeds  and  articles. 
But  there  have  arisen  at  intervals  thinkers  and 
mystics  who  have  ever  tended  to  renew  its  hold 
on  the  life  of  the  world. 

<1 

Jewish  and  Greek  Conceptions  of  God 

The  tribal  religion  of  the  Jews  recognised  as 
the  source  of  divine  activity  Jehovah  or  Yahveh, 
the  ancient  patron  of  the  race.  He  in  origin 
was  not  very  different  from  the  gods  of  the  sur¬ 
rounding  nations,  as  in  origin  mankind  did  not 
greatly  differ  from  the  ancestors  of  the  tribes  of 
apes.  But  the  good  providence  of  God,  working 
in  and  through  the  inspired  prophets  of  Israel, 
gradually  refined  and  exalted  what  may  be  called 
the  God-consciousness  of  the  people,  until  we 
have  the  wonderfully  exalted  and  intimate  sense 
of  God  which  is  embodied  in  the  Psalms,  some  of 
which  express  in  a  way  which  has  never  been 
surpassed,  the  feelings  of  awe,  gratitude,  and 
devotion,  which  belong  to  the  highest  religious 
consciousness. 

The  Greek  idea  of  God,  starting  from  the  same 
primitive  superstitions  as  the  Jewish,  developed 
in  a  different  direction.  Here  it  was  not  the 
prophets — for  the  Greeks  did  not  greatly  reverence 
the  prophet— but  the  philosophers,  in  whom  the 
higher  idea  evolved.  By  a  process,  which  has 
been  admirably  set  forth  by  Dr  Edward  Caird, 
the  more  intellectual  of  the  Greeks  came  in  time 


126  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


to  a  severe  monotheism,  the  most  inspired 
expression  of  which  we  find  in  Plato,  and  the 
fullest  development  of  which  is  shown  in  the 
writings  of  Marcus  Aurelius  and  Epictetus.  The 
one  was  despotic  master  of  the  civilised  world, 
the  other  a  lame  slave ;  yet  their  idea  of  God  is 
almost  identical,  and  much  of  it  finally  trickled 
through  into  Christianity.  This  Greek  religion 
does  remarkable  justice  to  some  of  the  sides  of 
human  experience  of  the  divine,  and  preaches  a 
very  exalted  morality ;  its  weakness  is  on  the 
side  of  the  emotions,  which  ancient  philosophy 
consistently  despised. 

The  radical  difference  between  the  Jewish  and 
the  Greek  conception  of  God  lies  in  this,  that  the 
Jews  regarded  God  as  personal,  the  Greeks  as 
impersonal.  The  contrast  thus  broadly  stated 
is  somewhat  exaggerated.  For  in  the  highest 
expressions  of  Jewish  religion,  such  as  passages  in 
the  Psalms,  in  Isaiah,  and  in  the  book  of  Job,  we 
find  phrases  which  imply  in  God  personality,  but 
personality  very  far  removed  from  that  of  man. 
“  As  the  heavens  are  higher  than  the  earth,  so 
are  my  ways  higher  than  your  ways,  and  my 
thoughts  than  your  thoughts.”  Verily,  thou  art 
a  God  that  hidest  thyself.”  And  the  Greeks 
when  they  worked  their  way  from  a  Zeus  who  was 
not  only  personal,  but  full  of  human  frailties,  to  a 
divine  Father  of  mankind,  did  retain  in  their 
higher  conceptions  something  of  personality.  But 


JEWISH  AND  GREEK  CONCEPTIONS  OF  GOD  127 


on  the  whole  the  contrast  between  the  Greek 
and  the  Hebrew  religious  spirit  in  this  matter  is 
striking.  And  as  early  Christianity  started  rather 
from  the  Jewish  than  from  the  Greek  idea  of 
God,  it  is  natural  that  this  belief  in  divine  person¬ 
ality  should  have  dominated  it. 

In  the  Synoptic  Gospels  there  is  no  speculation 
as  to  the  nature  of  God.  The  point  of  view  is 
strictly  practical,  we  might  say  pragmatist.  It 
is  the  relation  of  God  to  man,  his  working  in 
the  world  of  nature  and  in  the  hearts  of  men  that 
is  spoken  of.  The  will  of  God  is  mentioned,  but 
again  in  a  purely  practical  way,  as  the  law  to 
which  man  is  bound  to  conform.  The  love  of 
God  to  man  is  constantly  insisted  on;  but  here 
again  the  word  “  love  ”  only  helps  us  by  an  analogy 
to  understand  the  action  of  God  in  the  human 
world.  In  the  Fourth  Gospel  the  phrase  God 
is  Spirit  ”  ^  takes  us  for  a  moment  beyond  the 
bounds  of  practical  religion  into  the  realm  of 
thought ;  but  the  phrase  is  not  expanded  or  ex¬ 
plained.  The  view  of  St  Paul  is  like  that  of  the 
Old  Testament,  but  that  he  adds  that  God  is  the 
Father  of  Christ,  and  revealed  through  Christ. 

The  task  of  Christianity  was  to  develop  what 
was  best  in  the  theology  of  Judsea  and  Greece, 
and  to  bring  it  on  to  a  higher  platform  by  help 
of  the  Spirit  which  worked  in  the  Church,  in  a 
word  to  baptize  it  into  Christ.  It  was  by  the 

^  Not  a  spirit.  See  R.V. 


128  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


life  of  the  historic  Jesus  and  by  the  working  of 
the  spirit  of  Christ  in  the  Church  that  the  theism 
of  the  ancient  world  was  transmuted  into 
Christianity. , 

God’s  Power,  Holiness,  and  Love 

Presently  I  shall  speak  of  the  most  specific 
part  of  the  doctrine  of  Christianity,  of  the  Founder 
of  the  Faith,  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  is  the 
continual  inspiration  of  the  Christian  Church. 
But  at  present  I  wish  to  dwell  in  more  detail  on 
the  revelation  of  God  our  Father  in  the  New 
Testament  and  in  the  life  of  Christianity.  I  will 
speak  successively  of  the  power  of  God,  of  his 
holiness,  and  of  his  love.  Of  all  three  I  will  treat 
from  the  practical  point  of  view,  in  the  light 
of  experience.  There  has  been  in  philosophy  a 
great  deal  of  writing  in  regard  to  the  Absolute. 
As  to  that  I  have  nothing  to  say.  That  God  is 
transcendent  I  earnestly  believe  ;  human  thought 
cannot  fathom  the  depths  of  divinity.  We  can 
bathe  in  the  shallows  of  the  sea  and  pick  up  on 
the  shore  the  treasures  which  the  waves  throw 
up  ;  but  at  the  ocean  which  lies  beyond  we  can 
but  gaze  and  wonder.  But  an  absolute  Deity  as 
a  being  to  be  talked  about,  admitted  into  our 
little  schemes  of  thought,  comprehended  and 
fathomed,  is  beyond  the  reach  of  my  intelligence. 
According  to  strict  interpretation,  absolute  is 
the  opposite  of  relative.  An  absolute  deity,  as 


GOD’S  POWER,  HOLINESS,  AND  LOVE  129 


opposed  to  a  relative  deity,  that  is  to  a  deity  in 
constant  relation  to  man  and  nature,  is  neces¬ 
sarily  outside  the  range  of  thought  and  human 
intelligence.  If  it  pleases  some  philosophers  to 
talk  about  the  Absolute,  so  be  it ;  but  ordinary 
men  will  insist  on  melting  down  what  they  say, 
inquiring  what  is  the  value  of  their  assertions  in 
regard  to  scientific  truth  and  the  conduct  of  life, 
and  only  accept  what  seems  worth  accepting.  I 
shall  speak  of  the  great  attributes  of  God,  power, 
goodness,  and  love,  only  in  their  relation  to  human 
experience. 

The  power  of  God  includes  all  power  in  the 
Universe,  excepting  only  that  which  is  shut  off 
from  the  rest  by  what  I  have  called  the  sluice¬ 
gates  of  will.  The  forces  of  nature,  of  gravita¬ 
tion,  electricity,  vitality,  are  of  God,  and  form 
part  of  the  great  scheme  of  things  which  was 
made  for  man,  and  of  which  man  is  the  crown 
and  consummation.  The  energy  stored  in  every 
atom  of  matter,  which  is  available  in  coal,  in 
mineral  oil,  in  radium,  the  energy  which  streams 
from  the  sun,  is  an  offer  by  God  of  unlimited 
sources  of  power,  to  be  well  or  badly  applied. 
But  in  no  such  rigid  and  fixed  ways  does  the 
divine  power  work  in  human  consciousness,  but 
on  the  lines  of  freedom.  I  say  in  “  human  con¬ 
sciousness,”  though  probably  many  thinkers 
would  prefer  to  say  wherever  there  is  conscious 
life,”  even  among  animals,  which  like  man  have 


130  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


power  to  work  either  in  accordance  with,  or  in 
opposition  to,  the  law  of  their  being.  But  I 
prefer  to  speak  of  the  consciousness  of  man, 
which  we  can  study  and  comprehend,  while  that 
of  animals  is  at  present  almost  a  sealed  book  to 
us.  And  what  this  human  consciousness  reveals 
to  us  is  a  vast  ocean  of  spiritual  power,  on  which 
we  can  draw,  if  not  to  an  infinite  extent,  at  any 
rate  to  an  extent  only  limited  and  bounded  by 
the  conditions  of  our  mortality. 

In  the  Jewish  scriptures,  the  prowess  of  Joshua, 
the  strength  of  Samson,  the  wisdom  of  Solomon, 
are  all  spoken  of  as  the  direct  results  of  divine 
aid  and  inspiration.  Epictetus  speaks  in  the 
same  way  of  his  powers  of  thought  and  of  endur¬ 
ance.  And  I  venture  to  say  that  it  is  the  natural 
and  spontaneous  view  of  every  one  gifted  with 
natural  piety. 

But  when  a  man  adds  to  natural  piety 
reasoned  religion,  he  begins  to  distinguish.  He 
finds  that  the  power  of  God,  even  if  present 
in  every  outpouring  of  good  energy,  is  yet 
infinitely  more  traceable  in  such  thought,  such 
feeling,  and  such  action  as  are  concerned  with  the 
ideal.  The  character  of  action  is  not  indifferent 
to  the  divine  energy,  which  sometimes  approves 
and  sometimes  disapproves  it.  Righteousness 
and  kindness  in  conduct,  beauty  in  art,  truth  in 
matters  of  intellect,  are  in  the  line  of  divine 
approval. 


GOD’S  POWER,  HOLINESS,  AND  LOVE  131 

The  more  freely  the  personality  exposes  itself 
to  the  influence  of  the  world  of  spirit,  the  more 
fully  conscious  does  it  become  of  a  higher  will, 
dominant  in  that  realm,  and  urging  it  to  certain 
courses  of  action.  Into  that  higher  will  it  can 
never,  according  to  the  teaching  of  Christianity,  in 
this  life  be  wholly  absorbed.  That  is  the  dream 
of  the  oriental  ascetic,  but  not  of  the  work¬ 
ing  Christian.  At  the  highest  point  of  his  life, 
in  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane,  the  Founder  of 
the  faith  does  not  show  a  will  wholly  absorbed 
in  the  divine,  but  prays,  “Not  my  will,  but  thine, 
be  done.”  Seekers  after  God,  in  the  phrase  of 
Longfellow,  “  touch  God’s  right  hand  in  the 
darkness,  and  are  lifted  up  and  strengthened.” 
But  God’s  right  hand  does  not  carry  them  away  ; 
it  only  enables  them  to  walk  upright. 

To  the  phrase  “  the  will  of  God,”  the  objection 
is  often  made  that  it  is  anthropomorphic,  repre¬ 
senting  God  as  a  “  magnified  and  non-natural 
man,”  in  the  well-known  phrase  of  Matthew 
Arnold.  Such  a  meaning  as  that  I  disclaim.  I 
use  the  phrase,  in  a  purely  practical  way,  to 
express  the  experience  which  is  testified  to  in 
hundreds  of  biographies,  of  a  power  not  oneself, 
over  and  above  oneself,  which  urges  in  the  direc¬ 
tion  of  the  good.  Arnold’s  definition  of  God  was 
as  “  the  power,  not  ourselves,  which  makes  for 
righteousness.”  But  we  need  a  wider  definition. 
In  relation  to  the  will  the  phrase  may  be  satis- 


132  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


factory.  But  the  great  spiritual  power  works 
not  only  in  relation  to  the  will,  but  also  in  the 
field  of  emotion  and  thought.  Therefore  it  will 
be  more  satisfactory  to  speak  of  God  as  the  power 
which  impels  in  the  direction  of  the  ideal,  or,  in 
more  Platonic  phrase,  as  the  “  source  of  ideas.” 
I  have  used  these  phrases  in  various  writings,  but 
their  meaning  is  apt  to  be  misunderstood,  as  we 
are  apt,  in  ordinary  conversation,  to  use  the 
word  ‘‘  idea  ”  in  a  very  loose  way. 

Between  God  and  man  there  arises  a  constant 
process  of  give  and  take,  of  veneration  and  con¬ 
scious  obedience,  which  grows  and  matures  as  the 
individual  grows  and  matures.  And  from  this 
intercommunion  spring  alike  wisdom  and  emotion, 
a  gradual  expansion  of  the  mind  towards  what  is 
as  yet  unknown,  and  a  gradual  deepening  of  the 
feeling  which  is  embodied  in  the  eternal  phrases 
of  the  Lord’s  Prayer.  Of  course,  the  phrase,  “  Our 
Father  who  art  in  heaven  ”  may  be  used  in  many 
senses ;  and  to  no  two  persons  will  it  have 
exactly  the  same  meaning.  To  us  in  the 
twentieth  century  it  is  largely  emptied  of  mean¬ 
ing,  because  our  ideal  of  human  fatherhood  has 
degenerated.  A  father  among  us  commonly  seeks 
rather  to  be  a  friend  and  companion  to  his 
children  than  an  object  of  profound  respect. 
And  children  who  think  their  father  mistaken, 
have  little  scruple  in  disobeying  him.  But  from 
the  beginning  it  was  not  so.  To  the  Jews  of  the 


GOD’S  POWER,  HOLINESS,  AND  LOVE  133 

time  of  our  Lord  the  paternal  relation  was  a  very 
severe  one.  At  an  earlier  time  the  father  had 
had  power  of  life  and  death  over  his  children, 
and  he  was  still  the  venerated  chief  of  a  clan, 
the  ultimate  judge  of  all  questions.  It  is  thus 
that  the  phrase  of  Jesus  would  be  understood  by 
his  contemporaries. 

It  is  only  a  strong  belief  in  the  Fatherhood  of 
God  which  can  furnish  an  adequate  basis  for  a 
belief  in  the  brotherhood  of  men.  People  often 
talk  of  the  love  of  man  for  man,  of  the  people  of 
one  race  and  disposition  for  those  of  another  race 
and  disposition,  as  if  it  were  a  simple  and  ob¬ 
vious  tendency.  And  great  sentimentalists  like 
Rousseau,  at  the  time  of  the  French  Revolution, 
have  placed  this  sentiment  of  humanity  at  the 
base  of  all  virtue.  They  have  thought  that  the 
diversion  of  thought  and  affection  into  the  ways 
of  religion  was  the  great  hindrance  which  stood 
in  the  way  of  universal  love  between  man  and 
man.  The  sentimental  philanthropy  of  Rousseau 
paved  the  way  for  the  anti-human  destructive¬ 
ness  of  the  Napoleonic  wars.  We  have  only  to 
look  at  the  state  of  Europe  to-day  to  see  how 
small  is  the  natural  tendency  of  man  to  love  man¬ 
kind.  We  see  nation  bitterly  hostile  to  nation, 
class  to  class,  district  to  district.  And  a  nation 
will  justify  its  hatred  on  the  ground  of  patriotism, 
somehow  learning  to  think  that  it  stands  itself 
for  all  virtue,  and  its  rivals  for  all  vice  and 


134  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


cruelty.  The  extreme  symptom  is  that  every 
nation  is  talking  about  atrocities  committed 
against  its  members  by  other  peoples  ;  tales  of 
such  atrocities,  partly  true  and  partly  false,  cir¬ 
culate  everywhere,  and  they  are  believed,  not  so 
much  on  grounds  of  evidence,  as  because  it  is 
considered  natural  that  rival  nations  should 
behave  in  such  a  way. 

Mankind  would  never  have  advanced  from  a 
savage  to  a  civilised  condition  but  for  the 
religious  ties  which  united  men  into  clans  with 
common  worships  and  nations  with  recognised 
deities.  And  the  love  for  man  as  man,  the  ‘‘  en¬ 
thusiasm  of  humanity,”  will  never  get  the  better 
of  the  rivalries  and  hostilities  between  groups  of 
men,  classes  in  industrial  countries,  and  nations 
of  various  blood  and  traditions,  unless  it  is  rooted 
in  a  sense  of  a  common  relation  of  all  alike  to  the 
spiritual  source  of  humanity.  At  present  it  is 
beyond  doubt  that  there  is  more  of  the  feeling  of 
kinship  between  nations  among  Mohammedans 
than  among  Christians,  and  it  is  based  on  their 
religion.  Until  Christians  return  to  the  sense  of 
humanity  based  upon  religion  felt  in  the  early 
Church,  it  is  hard  to  see  how  the  excesses  of 
national  feeling  can  be  checked. 

From  the  lowering  and  misinterpretation  of 
the  idea  of  paternity  the  phrase  “  Our  Father  in 
heaven  ”  has  greatly  suffered.  And  not  only  on 
the  side  of  religious  thought,  but,  what  is  much 


GOD’S  POWER,  HOLINESS,  AND  LOVE  135 

more  important,  on  the  practical  side.  Men  have 
come  to  think  of  God  as  a  weak  and  indulgent 
parent,  who  will  not  be  hard  on  them  in  any  case, 
who  will  think  more  of  their  happiness  than  of 
their  perfection,  and  give  them  the  things  which 
they  want  or  think  they  want.  This  way  of 
regarding  God  had  spread  widely  ten  years  ago, 
and  veneration  was  drowned  in  a  flood  of  sickly 
talk  about  the  divine  love.  It  is  little  wonder 
that  when  the  trying  days  of  the  war  came,  the 
bitter  experiences  of  the  campaign  made  many 
thousands  of  souls  doubt  of  the  existence  of  God, 
and  say  that  if  there  were  a  God,  he  would  not 
allow  the  war  to  go  on.  Their  feeling  had  a  ground 
of  truth.  There  is  not,  in  fact,  any  such  God  as 
they  had  heard  of  in  church  and  chapel,  a  God 
of  infinite  mercy  but  no  stern  principle,  who  does 
not  chastise,  but  only  removes  from  men  the 
punishments  which  they  have  justly  deserved. 

If  God  had  arbitrarily  intervened  to  stop  the 
war,  without  removing  the  causes  which  brought 
it  on,  he  would  have  acted  like  an  unskilful 
physician  who  removes  symptoms  and  leaves 
the  disease  which  caused  them  unchecked.  He 
would  have  done  no  real  good,  and  yet  he  would 
have  destroyed  the  moral  order  of  the  world.  If 
God  now  intervened  to  stop  in  Russia  the  distress 
which  has  been  caused  by  the  wickedness  of  some 
and  the  weakness  and  stupidity  of  others  (for  the 
drought  is  not  at  the  bottom  of  the  famine),  he 


136  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


would  intervene  between  moral  cause  and  effect, 
and  again  destroy  the  ethical  character  of  the 
world.  Of  course  this  is  no  reason  why  we 
men  should  not  do  all  in  our  power  to  alleviate 
the  terrible  sufferings  of  the  Russian  people,  so 
long  as  we  do  not  promote  the  evil  courses  of 
which  it  is  the  result.  Being  men,  we  are  bound 
to  be  humane,  and  follow  humane  impulses  ;  but 
the  humanity  of  God  is  of  another  and  a  deeper 
kind. 

The  ordinary  Christian  teaching  about  God 
needs  infinite  stiffening.  Such  stiffening  comes 
mainly  from  two  sources,  the  study  of  scientific 
law  in  the  universe,  and  experience  of  the  working 
of  God  in  the  human  world.  In  the  Bible  the 
sterner  side  of  God  is  quite  as  prominent,  even  in 
the  New  Testament,  as  the  more  humane  side ; 
it  is  only  that  preachers  had  fallen  into  the  way 
of  dwelling  on  the  latter  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
former,  whence  the  sickly  one-sidedness  of  our 
current  religion.  For  it  is  quite  certain  that  if 
God  forgives  he  also  punishes ;  if  he  comforts  he 
also  afflicts.  It  is  certain  that  multitudes,  and 
those  of  the  best  of  our  race,  have  found  the 
approach  to  God  not  easy  but  hard,  the  way  that 
leads  to  life  narrow  and  stony.  What  our  age 
greatly  needs,  as  a  supplement  and  corrective  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  divine  kindness  and  com¬ 
passion,  is  a  doctrine  of  the  divine  righteousness, 
emphasis  laid  on  the  working  of  God  as  one 


GOD’S  POWER,  HOLINESS,  AND  LOVE  137 


who  hates  all  sin,  all  falseness,  all  cowardice,  and 
all  stupidity,  who  punishes  those  who  pursue 
unworthy  purposes  and  lower  the  moral  tone  of 
those  with  whom  they  come  in  contact. 

This  is,  as  is  clear  enough,  an  aspect  of  the 
divine  of  which  in  our  days  men  gladly  lose  sight. 
And  yet,  surely,  never  before  in  the  history  of 
the  world  were  the  workings  of  the  divine 
righteousness  more  manifest.  The  spectacular 
collapse  of  German  overweening  ambition  is  a 
revelation  of  that  side  of  God  to  which  Greek 
tragedy  bears  special  witness,  his  hatred  of 
ambition  which  has  no  regard  for  the  restraints 
of  humanity,  but  sets  the  attainment  of  its  own 
ends  above  any  thought  of  goodness.  And  the 
great  and  persistent  friction  between  classes  is  a 
nemesis  of  the  immoral  greed  of  capitalism  during 
the  last  century.  We  have  made  haste  to  be 
rich,  in  defiance  of  all  care  for  human  life,  and  the 
well-being  of  our  fellow-men.  We  have  exploited 
the  material  world,  not  caring  what  became  of 
the  interests  of  other  peoples.  And  the  result  is 
written  large  all  about  us.  Our  riches  are  cor¬ 
rupted  and  tainted  with  a  curse.  There  has  never 
been  a  time  when  there  was  so  little  enjoyment  to 
be  had  from  those  material  goods  which  were 
meant  for  our  enjoyment.  A  feeling  of  insecurity 
and  recklessness  has  taken  possession  of  men  of 
the  well-to-do  classes,  so  that  many  of  them 
cease  to  have  any  regard  for  the  future,  and  try 


138  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


to  extort  from  the  present  moment  any  poor 
satisfaction  which  it  may  seem  to  afford.  And 
the  proletariate  in  all  Europe,  and  not  least 
in  England  and  America,  are  profoundly  dis¬ 
contented,  always  striving  for  more,  and  many 
of  them  openly  speaking  of  revolution,  though 
they  cannot  point  out  any  possible  result  of 
revolution  which  would  in  fact  improve  even 
their  material  prosperity. 

The  way  of  God  in  the  punishment  alike  of 
German  military  ambition  and  capitalist  greed 
is  the  same  way  which  God  has  taken  in  such 
cases  through  the  whole  course  of  history.  He 
has  allowed  the  fault  to  work  out  its  own  evil 
consequences.  The  insane  recklessness  of  Ger¬ 
many  in  war  banded  against  her  so  many  foes 
that  even  her  superb  courage  and  organisation 
broke  down  under  the  strain.  It  is  over  again 
the  moral  taught  by  the  history  of  Sparta,  when 
she  became  the  oppressor  of  Greece,  and  of  Spain 
when  the  conquest  of  America  had  roused  in  her 
a  reckless  ambition.  And  the  reaction  against 
capitalism  has  come  from  the  spread  of  the 
materialism  of  the  capitalists  to  the  working 
classes,  whom  they  have  used  as  pawns  for  the 
attainment  of  their  own  ends.  The  grasping  of 
the  artisan  must  lead,  as  the  greed  of  the  capitalist 
has  led  already,  to  discontent,  restlessness,  and 
faction ;  and  in  the  end,  unless  it  is  checked,  to 
the  destruction  of  civilisation,  perhaps  of  the  white 


GOD’S  POWER,  HOLINESS,  AND  LOVE  139 

races.  Sin  arises  and  grows,  and  for  a  while  men 
rejoice  in  it,  and  find  its  fruits  sweet.  But  as  it 
spreads  and  develops  it  shows  that  self-con¬ 
tradictory  and  anti-social  character  which  is 
inherent  in  all  sin,  and  poisons  the  blood  of  the 
countries  or  the  classes  whom  it  holds  in  its  grip. 
In  the  long  run  the  righteousness  of  God  vindicates 
itself  with  terrifie  force,  and  men  are  swept  away 
like  birds  in  a  hurricane. 

The  conception  of  God  which  dominates  the 
great  majority  of  people  is  still  at  the  pre- 
scientific  and  arbitrary  stage.  They  think  that 
if  there  be  a  God  he  must  needs  interfere  in 
the  orderly  course  of  affairs  in  the  interests 
of  morality,  or  what  they  choose  to  regard  as 
morality.  And  when  great  calamities  or  catas¬ 
trophes  happen,  and  the  heavens  remain  silent, 
they  dethrone  God  in  their  hearts.  They  say, 
in  the  current  phrase,  that  they  have  no  use  for 
such  a  Deity.  A  far  more  serious  question  is 
whether  God  has  any  use  for  them.  Instead  of 
trying  to  find  out  what  the  ways  of  God  really 
are,  they  make  up  their  minds  what  they  ought 
to  be,  and  when  experience  explodes  their  facile 
optimism  they  abandon  religion  altogether. 

But  the  universe  under  the  government  of 
God  is  a  moral  whole,  a  realm  of  order  and  law. 
We  see  this  easily  in  regard  to  the  material  world. 
If  chance  ruled  there,  or  if  the  divine  power  were 
constantly  intervening,  there  could  be  no  material 


140  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


progress,  and  no  steady  use  of  the  resources 
which  lie  around  us.  If  iron  sometimes  floated 
and  sometimes  sank,  how  could  we  make  iron 
ships  ?  If  gold  were  sometimes  heavier  and 
sometimes  lighter  than  silver,  how  could  we  have 
a  trustworthy  coinage  ?  Unless  we  could  exactly 
calculate  the  force  to  be  got  out  of  a  ton  of  coal, 
engineering  would  be  paralysed. 

And  in  just  the  same  way  in  the  world  of 
human  action  and  morals,  unless  the  results  of 
action  were  fixed  and  definite,  the  sinews  of  con¬ 
duct  would  be  cut.  If  habitual  self-indulgence 
did  not  weaken  character,  and  systematic  ill- 
doing  deprave  it,  we  should  soon  cease  to  strive 
after  goodness.  If  deeds  of  mercy  and  kindness 
did  not  regularly  bring  happiness  both  to  giver 
and  receiver,  there  would  be  a  flaw,  a  discon¬ 
tinuity  in  the  moral  universe. 

The  Jews,  as  was  natural  at  the  time,  thought 
that  the  interventions  of  God  took  the  form  of 
suspensions  or  violations  of  law  in  the  material 
world.  They  thought  that  God  would  smooth  the 
waves  for  a  ship  which  carried  a  great  mission. 
They  thought  that  if  they  repented  at  a  time  of 
famine  God  would  at  once  send  rain.  And  many 
people  to  this  day  remain  in  this  pre-scientific 
frame  of  mind.  But  Christians  ought  to  re¬ 
member  that  it  is  expressly  condemned  by  the 
Saviour.  ‘‘  God  maketh  his  sun  to  rise  on 
the  evil  and  on  the  good,  and  sendeth  rain  on 


GOD  IN  HISTORY 


141 


the  just  and  on  the  unjust.”  We  have  here  an 
express  denial  of  the  ordinary  Jewish  belief. 
God  does  not  directly  punish  sin  by  withholding 
rain.  And  yet  since  moral  law  underlies  mere 
physical  law,  it  remains  in  a  real  sense  true  that 
“  a  fruitful  land  maketh  he  barren,  for  the 
iniquity  of  them  that  dwell  therein.” 

God  in  History 

Nevertheless  it  is  not  a  wise,  nor  in  the  event  a 
true  view,  which  contents  itself  with  prophecy- 
ing  evil,  and  which  looks  on  the  world  in  a  merely 
pessimistic  light.  The  history  of  England, 
beyond  that  of  other  countries,  gives  us  many 
glances  in  which  hope  predominates.  Over  and 
over  again,  the  mercy  of  God  in  dealing  with  our 
ancestors  has  tempered  his  justice.  Many  times 
we  have  seemed  to  be  on  the  brink  of  ruin,  and 
the  hand  of  God  has  rescued  us.  Many  times  the 
land  has  been  through  the  phases  marked  in  the 
107th  Psalm.  “  Fools,  because  of  their  trans¬ 
gression,  and  because  of  their  iniquities,  are 
afflicted.  Their  soul  abhorreth  all  manner  of 
meat ;  and  they  draw  near  unto  the  gates  of 
death.  Then  they  cry  unto  the  Lord  in  their 
trouble,  and  he  saveth  them  out  of  their  dis¬ 
tresses.”  We  are  now  suffering,  and  we  shall 
suffer  more  :  but  we  have  no  right  to  despair  of 
rescue.  Only  one  thing  is  essential,  and  that  is 
a  right  heart.  But  the  mercy  of  God  does  not 


142  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


over-ride  the  human  will,  it  only  aids  and  inspires 
it,  raising  up  from  time  to  time  the  men  who  save 
soeiety. 

Righteousness  extends  from  God  to  man,  and 
in  a  measure  from  man  to  fellow-man,  but  not 
from  man  to  God.  But  the  divine  love,  whieh  is 
the  eomplement  of  righteousness,  flows  in  two 
streams,  from  God  to  man,  and  from  man  to  God. 
The  love  of  God  to  man  is  a  great  stream  of 
cosmie  influence,  which  began  before  the  world 
came  into  being,  and  has  flowed  ever  since, 
though  far  more  strongly  into  some  lives  than 
others,  for  the  notion  that  God  loves  all  men 
equally  is  a  mere  metaphysical  figment.  God 
loves  all ;  but  the  influx  of  divine  love,  or  at  all 
events  the  experience  of  divine  love,  is  much  more 
evident  in  some  lives  than  in  others.  The  Jewish 
race,  no  doubt,  went  too  far  when  they  imagined 
that  they  were  a  people  chosen  out  of  the  world 
and  regarded  with  exclusive  love  by  God. 
“  Jacob  have  I  loved,  and  Esau  have  I  hated.” 
Yet  can  we  doubt  that  there  was  a  special  love 
of  God  for  the  race  which  did  far  more  than  any 
other  for  the  realisation  in  the  world  of  the 
divine  ideas  ?  Can  we  put  the  Jewish  people 
in  antiquity  on  the  same  level  of  divine  favour 
as  Babylon  and  Tyre  ? 

And  the  Greeks  in  the  course  of  history  have 
been  quite  as  much  a  chosen  race  as  the  Jews.  As 
it  was  the  function  of  the  Jews  to  emphasise  the 


GOD  IN  HISTORY 


143 


divine  element  in  conduct,  so  it  was  the  function 
of  the  Greeks  to  emphasise  the  humane  element 
in  philosophy,  in  literature,  and  in  art.  Our  daily 
life,  the  level  of  civilisation  which  we  have 
reached,  probably  owes  as  much  to  the  one  race 
as  the  other.  As  Sir  Henry  Maine  so  lucidly 
showed,  in  the  history  of  the  nations,  stagnation 
is  the  rule,  and  true  progress  the  exception  ;  and 
but  for  the  Greeks  we  might  have  rested  in  the 
contemplative  incapacity  of  India,  the  savagery 
of  the  earlier  Middle  Ages  in  Europe,  the  fossil- 
isation  of  China.  Our  ideals  in  poetry,  in  art, 
in  society,  are  derived  from  Greece,  and  spring 
out  of  the  divine  revelation  to  Greece,  and  the 
love  of  God  for  the  leaders  and  teachers  of  Greece. 

It  is  the  same  in  the  case  of  individuals.  The 
love  of  God  shines  into  their  lives  with  varied 
brightness,  and  in  many  forms,  endowing  one  with 
unquenchable  energy  for  good  deeds,  another 
with  a  passionate  love  of  truth,  an  enthusiasm  of 
veracity,  another  with  an  insatiable  desire  of 
what  is  beautiful.  To  more  ordinary  people 
these  endowments  come  in  a  less  copious  stream, 
and  with  less  clear  indications  of  their  source,  so 
that  a  man  will  often  ascribe  to  a  parent,  a  teacher, 
an  institution,  what  really  came  to  him  through 
such  agency  direct  from  above.  As  St  Paul 
puts  it,  “I  planted,  Apollos  watered,  but  God 
gave  the  increase.” 

Another  kind  of  experience  through  which  we 


144  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


realise  the  goodness  of  God  is  the  forgiveness  of 
sin.  There  are  among  us  many,  in  these  days,  who 
speak  with  dislike,  and  even  contempt,  of  the 
Christian  doctrine  of  sin.  They  think  that  if  they 
occasionally  go  wrong  it  is  only  natural,  and  God 
will  not  resent  it.  Kindly  men  among  us,  they 
think,  are  not  quick  at  resenting  injury  :  and  a 
Deity  whose  nature  is  love  will  be  still  readier  to 
forgive.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  if  we  study  the 
course  of  the  world,  what  is  most  obvious  is  the 
extreme  sternness  of  the  divine  justice.  The 
smallest  slip,  even  an  almost  unavoidable  bit  of 
ignorance,  is  remorselessly  punished.  A  man  goes 
on  heedlessly,  not  thinking,  and  he  is  suddenly 
caught  in  the  wheels  of  an  inexorable  necessity,  and 
crushed  or  badly  mutilated.  Experience  teaches 
nothing  more  thoroughly  than  the  stern  regularity 
with  which  the  forces  of  nature  and  of  the  human 
world  work,  and  the  hopelessness  of  trying  to 
escape  them. 

It  is  only  religion  which  shows  another  side  to 
the  divine  order.  When  that  order  is  violated 
condign  punishment  follows.  But  if  a  man 
acknowledges  his  transgression,  and  comes  to 
God  for  forgiveness,  a  strange  thing  happens. 
No  miracle  takes  place,  no  sudden  interposition 
between  cause  and  effect,  but  nevertheless  the 
whole  aspect  of  things  changes,  as  an  iceberg 
may  turn  over,  and  show  a  new  outline  above 
the  water.  A  man  may  even  glory  in  his 


THE  DIVINE  PERSONALITY 


145 


tribulation,  when  it  brings  him  a  closer  and  more 
vivid  view  of  the  divine  goodness.  Such  is  the 
experience  of  the  forgiveness  of  sin  which  has 
been  felt  by  innumerable  Christians  in  all  ages. 
And  if  a  man  denies  God,  and  expels  religion 
from  his  life,  the  result  will  not  be  to  free  him 
from  the  painful  consequences  of  a  collision 
with  law,  but  will  be  only  to  prevent  him  from 
enjoying  the  sense  of  forgiveness,  of  reconcilia¬ 
tion,  which  would  mitigate  those  consequences, 
or  even  drive  them  out  of  sight. 

The  Divine  Personality 

In  the  world  of  modern  thought  the  naive 
Jewish  conception  of  the  personality  of  God  of 
course  requires  modification.  Our  knowledge  of 
nature  has  been  enormously  developed,  and  our 
conception  of  the  universe  infinitely  expanded. 
But  our  experience  of  God  in  relation  to  man  is 
in  essence  not  unlike  that  of  the  prophets  and 
psalmists  of  Israel,  only  that  in  Christ  that 
experience  has  been  greatly  raised  and  extended. 
God  has  been  revealed  in  Christ  in  new  and 
wonderful  ways.  And  our  belief  in  the  person¬ 
ality  of  God,  which  rests  on  that  experience,  has 
been  exalted  and  refined.  But  when  we  speak 
of  the  divine  personality,  what  we  really  mean 
is  that  in  Christian  experience  God  shows  some 
of  the  attributes  of  human  personality,  wisdom, 
goodness,  and  kindness.  We  must  not  limit  the 


146  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


conception  of  God  to  personality  ;  but  only  say 
that  as  he  is  revealed  to  men  he  shows  a  side 
kindred  to  human  personality.  It  is  a  practical 
view,  justified  by  and  necessary  to  the  ethical 
life.  It  may  be  infinitely  expanded  by  pious 
meditation,  but  can  never  be  safely  used  as  a 
foundation  for  speculative  sehemes  of  meta¬ 
physics.  After  gaining  all  the  knowledge  we 
can  of  God’s  ways  of  working  in  the  world  of 
humanity,  and  having  glimpses  of  a  sublimity 
which  we  cannot  measure,  we  have  to  combine 
with  the  trust  in  the  divine  fatherhood  as  taught 
in  the  Lord’s  Prayer  the  phrase  of  Isaiah,  ‘‘As 
the  heavens  are  higher  than  the  earth,  so  are  my 
ways  higher  than  your  ways,  and  my  thoughts 
than  your  thoughts.” 

In  approaching  the  question  of  the  divine 
personality  from  the  practical  point  of  view  and 
by  the  method  used  in  the  present  work,  we  must 
regard  as,  generally  speaking,  inconclusive  any  a 
priori  arguments  derived  from  our  theories  as 
to  the  nature  of  spirit  or  the  constitution  of  the 
world.  And  we  must  reject  as  illusory  the  view 
of  the  man  in  the  street  that  God  is  a  monad,  as 
ourselves  are  monads,  so  that  we  can  speak  of 
him  as  a  magnified  non-natural  man.  We  must 
take  our  start  from  the  facts  of  religious  experi¬ 
ence,  and  see  what  is  really  involved  in  them. 

The  belief  in  the  divine  personality  is  really 
based  on  the  fact  that  when  we  approach  God 


THE  DIVINE  PERSONALITY 


147 


in  prayer  and  meditation  we  find  resistances  of 
a  particular  kind,  which  are  parallel  to  the 
resistances  which  we  meet  in  approaching  our 
fellow-men.  If  God  were,  as  some  writers  have 
maintained,  merely  evolved  from  our  own  con¬ 
sciousness,  these  resistances  would  not  exist.  We 
come  to  God  with  wishes  and  petitions  arising 
out  of  our  own  feelings  and  hopes.  If  God  were 
a  subjective  projection,  these  petitions  would 
meet  no  response,  but  die  away  into  the  empty 
sky.  And  this  no  doubt  is  the  experience  of 
many,  who  in  consequence  cease  to  have  any 
real  belief  in  God.  But  in  the  case  of  those  who 
cultivate  the  life  of  the  spirit,  it  is  otherwise. 
They  feel  themselves  in  a  presence  of  overpower¬ 
ing  force.  Their  wishes  and  hopes  often  cease 
or  are  transformed  ;  they  feel  the  poorness  of 
siich  energies.  Or  again,  these  wishes  are  strength¬ 
ened  and  purified,  so  that  the  petitioner  feels  that 
he  has  a  right  to  them,  and  that  they  are  in  the 
line  of  the  higher  life. 

There  is  in  this  a  close  and  remarkable  likeness 
to  the  approach  to  our  fellow-men.  I  do  not  mean 
ordinary  acquaintances,  but  the  few  for  whom 
we  have  a  very  high  regard  ;  in  whom,  as  we  say, 
we  believe.  As  we  speak  to  them  we  find  that  in 
the  intercourse  of  soul  with  soul  our  feelings 
change,  our  views  are  raised  and  refined.  We 
feel  the  influence  of  the  personality  of  our  friend 
dominating  our  own,  and  giving  us  a  new  outlook 


148  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


which  is  partly  our  own  and  partly  his.  Hence 
arises  in  us  that  intense  belief  in  the  reality  and 
objectivity  of  our  friend’s  being,  our  recognition 
of  his  excellent  personality. 

It  seems  very  natural  to  feel  in  the  same  way 
as  regards  God.  We  recognise  that  his  thoughts 
are  not  our  thoughts,  nor  his  ways  our  ways, 
but  immeasurably  superior.  And  the  conclusion 
comes  on  us  at  once,  that  as  our  friends  are  persons 
so  is  God  a  person.  The  parallel  is  so  obvious, 
and  the  conclusion  so  simple,  that  everyone,  I 
suppose,  naturally  is  disposed  to  accept  them. 
And  there  is  surely  no  harm  in  doing  so. 

Direct  and  perfect  communion  with  God  is 
so  rare  and  so  difficult  that  hardly  anyone  can 
hope  to  attain  to  it ;  probably  in  the  whole 
course  of  history  it  has  been  attained  to  but 
once.  To  feel  the  divine  presence,  and  to  gain 
thence  moral  energy  and  intellectual  enlighten¬ 
ment,  is  possible  for  most ;  but  fully  to  compre¬ 
hend  the  nature  of  God,  and  to  repair  to  him  as 
an  infallible  guide,  is  quite  another  thing,  a 
thing  to  which  men  may  make  infinite  approach 
without  ever  reaching  it. 

A  comparison  may  be  useful.  Wireless  tele¬ 
graphy  enables  anyone  to  be  in  communication 
with  his  friends.  But  he  will  only  receive  the 
message  of  those  friends  if  his  instrument  is  of 
a  particular  pitch  ;  and  other  communications 
with  which  he  has  nothing  to  do  may  so  crowd 


THE  DIVINE  PERSONALITY 


149 


upon  him  that  the  one  desired  message  may  not 
reach  him.  Similarly,  in  the  stress  of  the  world, 
and  amid  the  discordant  urgings  of  surrounding 
human  beings,  the  voice  of  God  may  be  inaudible. 
But  even  if  a  man  have  become  spiritually  deaf, 
the  testimony  of  others  and  the  reading  of  books 
of  religion  is  quite  enough  to  prove  the  objectivity 
of  divine  communications. 

When,  however,  we  reflect,  we  find  that  the 
parallel  between  communicating  with  God  and 
communicating  with  our  fellow-men  is  not  so 
close  as  we  might  imagine.  When  we  consider 
what  beliefs  as  to  God  have  been  held  even  by 
civilised  and  intelligent  people ;  when  we  observe 
that,  even  among  Christians,  it  is  quite  usual  to 
make  an  appeal  to  some  delegate  of  God,  some 
saint  or  angel,  take  the  place  of  direct  communica¬ 
tion,  we  shall  discern  the  intellectual  dangers 
which  beset  any  attempt  to  deduce  from  religious 
experience  any  reasoned  or  satisfying  doctrine 
of  God.  The  best  formula  which  I  can  suggest 
is  that  we  learn  by  experience  that  there  is  in 
the  divine  nature,  in  the  ruler  of  the  spiritual 
world,  something  akin  to  personality,  something 
that  may  answer  our  appeals  as  a  friend  might 
answer  them,  yet  that  any  personality  which  we 
can  ascribe  to  God  is  so  infinitely  above  and 
beyond  any  which  we  can  comprehend,  that  we 
are  utterly  lost  in  the  contemplation  of  it. 

Later  on  I  shall  return  to  this  subject  of 


150  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


mediators  between  God  and  man.  Probably  to 
many,  or  most  people,  it  is  easier  and  more  help¬ 
ful  to  think  of  divine  aid  as  coming  from  some 
lesser  source  than  God.  Probably  modesty  would 
suggest  to  many  that  in  the  small  affairs  of 
daily  life  it  is  presumptuous  to  expect  direct  aid 
from  the  infinite  source.  Yet  the  experience  of 
life  shows  that  aid  from  above  does  come  even  in 
small  and  almost  indifferent  matters.  The  fact 
is  that  the  distinction  between  small  and  great  in 
practice  is  almost  arbitrary  ;  and  we  never  know 
whether  the  thing  we  are  doing  is  important  or 
unimportant,  whether  it  is  negligible  or  whether 
it  will  have  abiding  consequences.  Therefore  if 
any  man  prefers  to  think  that  God  appoints  a 
subordinate  power,  some  guardian  angel,  to 
watch  over  him,  to  avert  evil  and  lead  to  the 
higher,  it  seems  to  be  quite  a  legitimate  view. 
It  is,  of  course,  thoroughly  Biblical;  “He  shall 
give  his  angels  charge  over  thee,  and  in  their 
hands  they  shall  bear  thee  up,  lest  at  any  time 
thou  dash  thy  foot  against  a  stone.”  “  Are 
they  not  all  ministering  spirits,  sent  forth  to 
minister  unto  those  that  shall  inherit  salvation.” 
Like  most  views  in  religious  matters,  it  is  liable 
to  abuse,  and  may  easily  drift  into  superstition. 
But  the  man  who  sincerely  believes  in  divine  aid, 
however  he  may  account  for  it,  is  infinitely 
nearer  to  the  truth  of  things  than  the  man  who 
disbelieves  in  it. 


THE  DIVINE  PERSONALITY 


151 


There  is  another  aspect  of  things  which  must 
not  be  overlooked.  In  the  Gospels  the  great 
enemy  of  God,  Satan,  is  spoken  of  as  personal, 
and  his  action  in  the  world  is  spoken  of  as  similar 
to,  but  ever  opposed  to,  the  action  of  God. 
Modern  sentimental  Christianity,  while  pouring 
out  oceans  of  vague  religiosity  in  regard  to  God, 
does  not  speak  of  Satan  or  regard  him  seriously. 
Yet  those  who  have  been  most  advanced  in  the 
spiritual  life  have  intensely  believed  in  his  exist¬ 
ence,  and  attributed  to  him  a  personality  corre¬ 
sponding  to  the  divine  personality,  with  the 
substitution,  at  every  point,  of  evil  for  good. 
And  belief  in  the  diabolic  personality  rests  on  the 
same  general  ground  of  experience  as  belief  in 
the  divine  personality.  But  since  the  latter 
belief  is  comforting  and  the  former  belief  dis¬ 
turbing,  people  overlook  the  parallelism. 

There  are  many  modern  substitutes  for  the  old 
Christian  doctrine  of  the  personality  of  the  Power 
of  evil.  Some,  especially  among  men  of  science, 
regard  evil  in  the  human  world  as  mere  survival, 
as  the  working  in  and  below  consciousness  of 
atavistic  tendencies  in  man,  of  ‘‘  the  ape  and 
tiger,”  of  the  fierce  passions  of  the  savage,  and 
the  callous  selfishness  of  the  barbarian.  Some 
regard  evil  as  imperfect  and  inchoate  good ; 
some  consider  wickedness  as  a  sort  of  aberration 
or  disease. 

Evil  and  wickedness  exist ;  but  to  try  to 


152  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


account  for  them  is  to  enter  into  endless  specula¬ 
tive  difficulties.  All  that  I  am  bound  to  main¬ 
tain  is,  that  in  fact  man  is  inwardly  tempted  to 
evil,  and  outwardly  is  always  falling  into  evil. 
Forces  and  tendencies  in  the  world  of  spirit  are 
not  all  good,  but  sometimes  very  evil.  Our  spirits 
live  in  a  world  of  mixed  good  and  evil,  and  the 
course  of  our  lives  may  bend  in  the  direction  of 
good  or  in  the  direction  of  evil.  It  is  our  one 
great  business  to  admit  through  the  gate  of  the 
will  impulses  tending  to  good,  and  to  shut  out 
impulses  tending  to  evil.  And  this  we  certainly 
cannot  do  by  any  inherent  power  of  our  own. 
It  is  only  the  spirit  of  good  which  can  quench  the 
spirit  of  evil,  just  as  in  our  arteries  the  phagocytes 
can  destroy  the  germs  of  disease.  But  it  is  for 
us  as  moral  beings  to  help  the  power  that  makes 
for  good. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


THE  ETERNAL  CHRIST 

The  Person  of  Christ  in  the  Gospels 

The  most  fundamental  problems  which  lie 
before  Christian  thought  are  the  nature  of  Christ 
and  the  generic  consciousness  which  unites  Chris¬ 
tians  into  a  Church.  These  questions  may  not 
be  of  supreme  importance  to  the  unreflective. 
The  great  majority  of  Christians  accept  from 
authority  the  views  on  the  subject  which  satisfied 
a  past  generation.  But  they  are  of  the  utmost 
importance  to  those  who  think,  and  wish  to 
think  consistently.  And  in  an  age  like  ours, 
when  everything  is  brought  into  question,  and 
when  self-satisfied  youth  is  ready  to  throw  away 
every  belief  of  which  it  does  not  see  an  obvious 
justification,  it  becomes  of  very  great  moment 
that  all  who  are  attached  to  Christianity  should 
be  able  to  give  a  reason  for  the  faith  which  they 
cherish,  should  not  be  at  the  mercy  of  the  sceptic. 

In  more  than  one  of  my  published  papers  I 
have  examined  the  root  and  the  validity  of  the 
current  doctrine  of  Christ.  I  have  set  side  by 
side  the  historic  picture  of  a  human  Jesus  and 

163 


154  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


the  mystic  vision  of  the  exalted  Christ,^  and  I 
have  maintained  that  the  spirit  of  the  Christian 
passes  by  faith  from  one  to  the  other,  and  unites 
them  by  an  effort  of  will  and  personality.  But 
hitherto  I  have  not  tried  to  set  forth  in  the 
light  of  reason  a  justification  for  that  synthesis  ; 
I  have  contented  myself  with  hinting  that  the 
justifications  attempted  in  previous  ages  are  no 
longer  quite  valid.  I  have  stopped  short,  in 
great  part,  from  a  feeling  which  the  Greeks  called 
aidos,  an  inevitable  diffidence. 

But  to  anyone  conversant  with  the  literature 
of  the  day,  such  scruples  may  well  seem  out  of 
place. 

Until  recent  years  it  has  been  the  custom  of 
theologians  to  cite  in  regard  to  the  doctrine  of 
Christ  passages  taken  almost  at  random  from 
the  Bible,  which  was  regarded  as  inspired  or 
infallible.  If  some  of  these  passages  were  in¬ 
consistent  with  others,  an  art,  the  art  of  the 
reconciler  or  expositor,  was  brought  in  to  produce 
harmony  out  of  an  apparent  discord.  Not  only 
were  all  the  four  Gospels  used  as  first-hand 
authorities  as  to  the  sayings  and  doings  of  Jesus, 
but  passages  from  St  Paul’s  Epistles,  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews,  and  other  documents  of  the 
New  Testament,  were  freely  quoted  as  authorities 
for  the  Christian  teaching  in  regard  to  the 

^  Modernity  and  the  Churches,  p.  230  ;  ‘‘  Jesus  or  Christ  ” 
{Hibbert  Journal,  Supplement,  1909),  p.  45. 


THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST  IN  GOSPELS  155 


Founder,  without  regard  to  the  context  or  the 
circumstances  of  writing.  Even  passages  from 
the  books  of  the  Old  Testament  were  used  to  fill 
any  apparent  gap  in  the  record,  not,  of  course, 
in  a  quite  literal,  but  in  a  transfigured,  sense. 
Most  of  the  writers  of  the  Roman  and  the  Anglican 
Churches,  whatever  may  be  their  claim  to  method, 
still  usually  follow  this  course.  And  it  is  the 
course  adopted  in  the  great  majority  of  the  pulpits 
of  the  land.  Nor  is  any  other  course  desired  by 
the  mass  of  the  Christian  laity. 

But  such  procedure  has  become  impossible  to 
all  who  have  been  affected  by  the  tide  of  humanist 
criticism,  which,  starting  with  a  more  careful 
investigation  of  the  literature  of  Greece  and 
Rome,  has  gone  on  to  apply  the  canons  thence 
derived  to  the  books  comprised  in  the  Bible. 
Naturally  it  has  raised  strong  opposition.  It  has 
been  set  down  to  the  malignity  of  German 
specialism.  In  many  quarters  any  protest,  how¬ 
ever  ignorant,  against  what  is  called  ‘‘the  higher 
criticism,”  meets  with  applause.  All  this  is 
absurd.  It  is  quite  true  that  specialism  in 
theology,  as  in  many  other  things,  has  been 
carried  to  excess  in  Germany.  But  the  main 
principles  of  historic  and  literary  criticism,  as 
applied  to  the  Bible  and  the  early  history  of 
Christianity,  are  not  at  all  peculiar  to  Germany. 
They  are  accepted  wherever  education  is  on  a 
reasonable  basis.  Florence  and  Paris,  Basel  and 


156  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


Brussels,  the  English  and  the  American  Cam¬ 
bridge,  are  in  this  matter  at  one.  The  very 
phrase  “  higher  criticism,”  which  is  supposed  to 
embody  a  claim  to  superiority,  really  only  means, 
in  all  well-informed  schools  of  theology,  criticism 
which  passes  beyond  mere  verbal  and  textual 
research  to  the  matter  and  origin  of  the  documents 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments. 

The  first  and  the  most  fundamental  problem 
set  before  New  Testament  criticism  is  to  dis¬ 
tinguish  between  the  teaching  of  Jesus  and  the 
teaching  in  regard  to  Christ  in  the  writings  of 
the  earliest  disciples.  The  line  of  division  is 
comparatively  simple.  The  three  Synoptic  Gos¬ 
pels,  though  in  places  they  are  coloured  by  the 
medium  through  which  the  biography  they 
embody  passed  before  it  was  written  down  in 
the  present  form,  yet  certainly  do  contain  a 
good,  and  on  the  whole  trustworthy,  account  of 
the  teaching  of  Jesus.  The  views  of  the  early 
disciples  in  regard  to  the  Founder  also  come  to  us 
from  three  sources,  which  are,  ranged  in  order  of 
date,  the  Epistles  of  St  Paul,  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews,  and  the  Fourth  Gospel.  This  Gospel 
is  no  doubt  the  crux  of  the  situation,  the  storm- 
centre  of  theological  controversy.  It  is  im¬ 
possible  here  to  discuss  the  various  views  which 
may  be  taken  of  it ;  I  can  only  briefly  state  that 
on  which,  as  I  am  convinced,  criticism  is  steadily 
settling.  There  are  in  this  Gospel  reminiscences  of 


THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST  IN  GOSPELS  157 


actual  events  in  the  life  of  the  Saviour,  reminis¬ 
cences  which  may  go  back  to  some  actual  com¬ 
panion,  and  not  impossibly  to  John  the  son  of 
Zebedee,  whom  tradition  takes  to  Ephesus.  In 
the  narrative  of  the  last  days  there  may  be  a 
good  deal  of  actual  history.  But  the  historic 
element  in  the  Gospel  is  completely  overlaid  with 
elements  which  are  not  historic.  The  personality 
whom  it  brings  before  us,  however  grand  and 
remarkable,  is  not  one  who  could  ever  have 
actually  walked  the  earth.  In  the  main  the 
book  is  a  series  of  parables,  sometimes  with  and 
sometimes  without  a  historic  nucleus,  tending 
to  exalt  the  eternal  Son  of  God,  the  spiritual 
life  of  the  Church.  We  have  a  series  of  phrases, 
sublime  indeed,  but  not  in  the  manner  of  the 
Jesus  of  the  Synoptists,  such  as  “  I  am  the  bread 
of  life,”  “  I  am  the  light  of  the  world,”  “  I  am 
the  resurrection  and  the  life.”  And  around  these 
phrases  is  built  a  structure  of  narrative,  of 
exposition  and  of  exhortation.  It  is  not  possible 
to  take  either  the  sayings  or  the  commentaries  as 
coming  from  the  historic  Jesus,  though  we  may 
well  regard  them  as  given  to  the  Church  by  the 
Spirit  of  Christ  which  dwelt  in  it. 

When,  then,  we  inquire  what  was  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  in  regard  to  his  own  person,  we  find 
that  it  is  of  the  simplest  description,  and  in  the 
fullest  sense  practical,  having  to  do,  not  with 
thought,  but  with  conduct.  Doing  the  will  of 


158  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 

God  is  set  forth  by  Jesus  as  the  ultimate  good, 
as  the  end  after  whieh  all  men  should  strive,  and 
the  end  towards  which  his  own  life  was  utterly 
devoted.  The  three  theses  on  which  he  dwells 
with  constant  iteration  are  the  fatherhood  of  God, 
the  brotherhood  of  man,  and  the  duty  of  bringing 
in  on  earth  the  divine  kingdom,  in  which  the  will 
of  God  shall  be  fully  done.  But  at  present  only 
one  point  in  the  teaching  concerns  us  ;  what 
did  Jesus  teach  as  to  his  own  nature,  and  his 
relation  to  God  ?  There  is  only  one  passage  in 
the  Synoptists  where  he  makes  a  claim  such  as 
those  of  which  the  Fourth  Gospel  is  full,  what 
one  may  call  a  theological  claim.  “  All  things 
have  been  delivered  unto  me  of  my  Father  :  and 
no  one  knoweth  the  Son,  save  the  Father ;  neither 
doth  any  know  the  Father,  save  the  Son,  and  he 
to  whomsoever  the  Son  willeth  to  reveal  him.”^ 
This  passage  stands  by  itself,  and  biblical  com¬ 
mentators  have  observed  that  it  is  in  close  accord 
with  the  teaching  of  the  Fourth  Evangelist. 
It  seems  quite  clear  that  it  belongs  to  the  period 
after  the  crucifixion,  and  represents  not  the 
teaching  of  Jesus,  but  the  teaching  of  the  disciples 
about  Jesus.  The  last  verse  of  Matthew,  ‘‘  baptiz¬ 
ing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the 
Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,”  can  be  clearly 
shown  to  be  an  anachronism,  because  we  have 
in  Acts  many  records  of  baptisms,  and  in  none 

^  Matt.  xi.  27. 


THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST  IN  GOSPELS  159 


of  them  is  the  formula  which  Matthew  represents 
as  dictated  by  their  risen  Lord  to  the  Apostles 
ever  used.  We  may,  therefore,  fairly  say  that 
we  have  no  knowledge  of  any  metaphysical 
teaching  of  Jesus  himself  as  to  his  relation  to 
God  and  the  world  of  spirit. 

After  the  numerous  writings  on  the  Eschatology 
of  the  Gospels  which  have  appeared  since  the 
beginning  of  this  century,  it  seems  to  me  difficult 
to  doubt  that  Jesus  expected  an  immediate 
coming  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven. ^  Strange 
events,  he  thought,  were  about  to  take  place  in 
the  world,  and  the  divine  kingdom  to  come  in 
by  a  sudden  revelation  of  God  from  heaven. 
It  seems  probable,  though  this  is  less  clear,  that 
he  thought  of  himself  as  chief  actor  in  this 
revelation,  as  coming  with  an  angelic  army  to 
set  up  the  kingdom  on  earth.  From  the  point 
of  view  of  this  book,  such  an  illusion  (for  that 
it  was  an  illusion  cannot  be  denied)  does  not 
seriously  diminish  our  veneration  for  the  Saviour. 
In  a  high  and  spiritual  sense  it  was  true  that 
there  was  approaching  a  great  change  and  a  new 
revelation  of  God  to  man,  and  it  was  true  that 
it  was  to  arise  out  of  his  own  life  and  death. 

I 

Only  the  clouds  of  the  Jewish  atmosphere  did 

1  See  espeeially  Mark  xiv.  25,  62.  I  think  that  the  greater 
part  of  the  diseourse  in  Mark  is  not  authentie.  It  is  harder 
to  dispute  the  authentieity  of  phrases  whieh  oeeur  in  a 
dispersed  way  in  the  narrative. 


160  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


in  a  measure  cause  him  to  misinterpret  the 
inner  revelation,  largely  in  consequence  of  the 
value  which  all  pious  Jews  at  the  time  attributed  to 
the  eschatological  writings  which  were  circulating 
among  them. 

In  any  case  it  seems  to  me  beyond  question 
that  Schweitzer  and  his  adherents  have  gone 
much  too  far,  in  regarding  eschatology  as  the 
basis  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  There  are  in  the 
Synoptics  remarkable  passages  which  seem  to 
set  forth  another  view.  ‘‘  The  kingdom  of 
heaven  cometh  not  with  observation  :  neither 
shall  they  say,  Lo  here !  or,  Lo  there !  for  lo  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  within  (or  in  the  midst  of) 
you.”  And  many  parables,  such  as  that  of  the 
leaven  and  that  of  the  mustard  seed,  seem  to 
imply  not  a  sudden  interruption  of  history,  but 
a  historic  process  gradually  working.  Whether 
the  two  views  were  accepted  by  the  Saviour, 
one  in  one  part  of  his  life,  the  other  in  another 
part,  or  whether  they  lay  side  by  side  in  the 
human  consciousness  of  the  Saviour,  is  a  question 
of  the  greatest  difficulty,  probably  a  question 
which  is  insoluble.  But  what  is  clear,  is  that  the 
belief  in  a  cataclysm  is  not  primary,  does  not 
completely  condition  the  whole  teaching  of  Jesus, 
but  is  a  separate  or  extraneous  element,  which  is 
not  dominant.  What  is  dominant  is  the  practical 
working  sense  of  the  all-importance  of  the 
spiritual  substratum  of  life,  the  sense  of  religious 


THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST  IN  GOSPELS  161 


values.  The  roots  of  his  teaching  were  far 
deeper,  going  into  the  whole  spiritual  ground  of 
life  and  the  profound  relations  between  God 
and  man.  When  by  the  end  of  the  first  century 
of  our  era  the  hope  of  a  sudden  catastrophe,  and 
of  a  reign  of  the  saints  on  earth  began  to  decay, 
it  left  the  sublime  teaching  of  the  Saviour  in  the 
main  uninjured.  It  only  needed  re-setting  :  and 
this  it  has  needed  from  time  to  time  through  the 
ages.  The  setting  has  to  be  renewed,  but  the 
jewels  retain  their  form  and  their  lustre.  In  fact, 
the  doctrine  of  the  Kingdom  and  the  teaching 
as  to  conduct  were  two  sides  of  one  overwhelming 
conviction  of  the  spiritual  basis  of  life,  and  of  the 
transitoriness  of  what  is  visible.  It  is  this  con¬ 
viction  in  the  mind  of  the  Saviour,  and  its 
embodiment  in  his  life,  which  are  the  source  of 
the  Christian  inspiration.  The  end  of  the  world 
did  not  come  ;  and  the  explicit  maxims  of  conduct 
which  Jesus  expressed  have  to  be  modified  and 
interpreted  before  they  can  be  acted  on  in  any 
settled  and  continuous  civic  life.  They  are 
taken  literally  only  by  a  few,  whom  we  may  call, 
as  we  please,  saints  or  fanatics.  But  from  the 
divine  source  whence  came  these  maxims  of 
conduct,  there  have  flowed  into  the  Church 
continually  fresh  revelations  dominated  and 
inspired  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Founder. 

In  the  Gospels  the  life  of  Jesus  is  broidered 

with  a  tissue  of  miracle.  In  our  days  almost  all 

II 


162  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


theologians  allow  that  miracles  need  not  be 
accepted  as  literal  history,  but  must  be  divided 
into  classes.  That  Jesus  exercised  remarkable 
powers  of  healing  is  allowed  by  all.  And  the 
modern  development,  especially  furthered  by 
experiences  of  the  war,  of  faith-healing,  and 
psychiatry,  has  furnished  such  near  parallels  ^  to 
the  cures  recorded  by  the  Synoptists  that  complete 
scepticism  in  regard  to  the  latter  is  hardly  justified. 
The  few  miracles  of  another  class  in  our  records 
are  no  doubt  based  on  tradition  mingled  with  mis¬ 
understanding.  Their  value  as  evidence  for  the 
supernatural  nature  of  the  Founder  of  Christianity 
would  be  dwelt  on  by  few  authorities. 

Such  a  view  of  the  human  life  of  the  Saviour 
as  is  here  implied  is  very  usual  among  Christians 
at  present.  It  was  greatly  furthered  by  the 
appearance  in  the  last  generation  of  Ecce  Homo  ! 
a  work  of  undoubted  genius,  which  on  its  first 
appearance  was  regarded  by  extreme  Evangelicals 
as  “  vomited  out  of  the  mouth  of  Hell,”  but  is 
now  cited  with  appreciation  in  many  pulpits. 
Recently  we  have  had  a  work  of  similar  character. 
Dr  Glover’s  Jesus  of  History,  which  has  not  only 
been  accepted  as  a  text-book  by  the  Christian 
Student  Movement,  but  has  been  commended  to  the 
Church  in  a  Preface  by  the  Archbishop  of  Canter¬ 
bury.  What  further  need  have  we  of  witnesses  ? 

^  See  especially  an  excellent  little  work,  Miracles  and  the 
New  Psychology,  by  E.  R.  Micklem. 


THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST  IN  GOSPELS  163 


Shortly  before  the  great  war  Dr  Sanday  caused 
considerable  disturbance  in  the  theological  world 
by  advocating  a  new  and  remarkable  view  as  to 
the  divine  nature  of  Christ.^  He  sums  up  his 
doctrine  thus  :  “  The  proper  seat  or  locus  of  all 
divine  indwelling,  or  divine  action  upon  the 
human  squI,  is  the  subliminal  consciousness.” 
‘‘  The  same  or  the  corresponding  subliminal 
consciousness  is  the  proper  seat  or  locus  of  the 
Deity  of  the  incarnate  Christ.”  That  there  is 
truth  in  this  view  is  scarcely  to  be  denied.  As  we 
have  seen  in  the  chapter  on  Inspiration,  this  is 
closely  connected  with  the  unconscious  :  but  I 
have  maintained  that  we  should  call  the  source 
of  the  revelation  which  thus  comes  rather  super- 
liminal  than  subliminal.  And  it  must  be  added 
that  the  view  of  Dr  Sanday,  though  true,  is  not 
the  whole  truth,  since  there  is  an  inspiration  of 
the  character,  of  the  whole  being  of  man,  as  well 
as  of  his  more  impersonal  side.  Inspiration  may 
come  to  a  man  so  impersonally  as  to  have  little 
to  do  with  the  human  medium ;  it  may  find  an 
utterance  through  him  when  he  is  in  an  un¬ 
conscious  state  of  ecstasy  or  in  a  half-conscious 
state  of  dreaming.  But  when  it  is  intertwined 
with  action  and  produces  results  in  the  character 
the  case  is  different.  And  man  does  not  in 
fact  consist  of  independent  parts  ;  but  is  a  whole. 
In  Jesus,  teaching,  action,  and  character  are  so 
1  Christologies  Ancient  and  Modern,  1910. 


164  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 

intertwined  that  they  cannot  be  separated  even 
in  thought.  In  him  the  conscious  and  the 
unconscious  were  not  two,  but  one  Christ. 

The  Person  of  Christ  among  the  Early 

Disciples 

Jesus  had  no  sooner  passed  away  from  the 
sight  of  the  Apostles  than  they  were  filled  with 
an  overwhelming  conviction  that  their  Master, 
though  not  visible,  was  present  with  them  in 
spirit,  giving  them  constant  help,  and  a  power 
which  neither  devil  nor  man  could  resist,  a 
wisdom  which  confounded  all  opponents,  and  a 
peace  and  joy  which  raised  them  to  another  level 
of  being.  At  first  they  were  content  merely  to 
recognise  the  fact,  and  to  say  that  the  Jesus  who 
had  been  crucified  had  been  raised  by  God  and 
exalted  to  be  a  Saviour  for  all  mankind,  so  that 
in  faithful  reliance  upon  Him  all  men  could  be 
saved  from  sin  and  made  partakers  of  a  life 
which  was  eternal.  This  is  the  gist  of  the  speech 
attributed  to  St  Peter  in  Acts,  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost.  And  to  simple  and  unlearned  men 
such  as  were  the  Apostles,  it  was  the  most  natural 
view  to  take.  It  simply  put  together  the  obvious 
facts  of  everyday  experience,  without  any  attempt 
to  explain  them  or  to  form  a  rational  creed. 

But  it  is  clear  that  such  a  state  of  mind  could 
not  continue.  All  men  must  reflect  on  experience, 
and  make  some  effort  to  understand  it ;  and  as 


CHRIST  AMONG  THE  EARLY  DISCIPLES  165 


men  of  greater  intellect  and  better  acquaintance 
with  Greek  philosophy  joined  the  society,  the 
ball  of  speculative  metaphysics  was  set  rolling, 
and  has  rolled  on  even  to  our  day,  every  generation 
of  Christians,  if  they  did  not  accept  the  authorised 
dicta  of  authority,  trying  to  think  out  the  root- 
problems  of  Christianity ;  or  even  if  they  did 
accept  the  received  formulae,  trying  to  attach  to 
them  a  fresh  meaning,  taken  from  the  current 
philosophy  of  the  time. 

It  is  clear  that  Matthew  and  Luke  held  what 
must  be  called  a  monadic  view  of  their  Master’s 
person.  They  thought  that  the  Jesus  who  still 
dwelt  in  the  memory  of  some  of  those  for  whom 
they  wrote  came  into  being  at  a  definite  time, 
in  the  reign  of  Augustus  Caesar,  taught  and 
wrought  for  a  few  months  in  Galilee  and  Judea, 
was  put  to  death,  and  after  death  was  raised  up 
by  the  power  of  God,  and  was  soon  to  return, 
as  the  same  person  whom  they  had  seen  or 
heard  of  in  the  flesh,  to  establish  upon  earth  the 
reign  of  the  saints.  Of  any  previous  existence 
of  their  Master  they  say  nothing.  Thus  the 
personality  of  their  Lord,  however  exalted  and 
inspired  by  a  close  communion  with  God,  was  of 
the  same  kind  as  the  personalities  of  ordinary 
men,  until  he  was  exalted  after  death  to  be  a 
prince  and  a  saviour.  But  as  the  society  grew, 
this  view  was  found  to  be  inadequate. 

St  Paul’s  explanation  is  that  Jesus  was  a 


166  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 

great  spiritual  power,  a  sort  of  subordinate  deity, 
who  for  the  sake  of  man  abandoned  his  heavenly 
state  and  came  down  to  live  the  life  of  a  peasant, 
and  to  die  the  death  of  a  felon  on  earth,  in  order 
that  by  such  sufferings  he  might  redeem  mankind 
and  do  away  with  the  disastrous  consequences 
of  the  sin  of  Adam.  After  the  crucifixion  Christ 
resumed  his  place  at  the  right  hand  of  God, 
whence  he  could  sympathise  with  and  succour 
all  who  called  on  his  name  with  faith,  giving 
them  a  share  in  his  own  supernatural  power  and 
life. 

The  view  of  the  Fourth  Evangelist,  an  Ephesian 
disciple  of  St  Paul,  though  it  has  a  superficial 
likeness  to  St  Paul’s,  is  really  in  many  ways  very 
different.  It  is  far  less  genuinely  Jewish,  and 
far  more  transfused  with  that  Greek  or,  rather, 
Hellenistic  culture  of  which  Ephesus  was  one 
of  the  chief  seats.  The  writer  was  the  first  and 
the  greatest  of  Christian  Mystics,  and  his  view, 
or  some  imitation  or  translation  of  it,  has  been 
throughout  the  history  of  Christianity  the  belief 
of  the  noblest  and  most  exalted  souls.  No 
document  ever  written  by  man  has  been  more 
misunderstood  and  traduced  than  the  Fourth 
Gospel.  The  hero  of  the  Gospel  is  not  the 
historic  Jesus,  save  to  some  degree  in  the  narrative 
of  the  Passion,  but  the  Christ  of  the  experience  of 
the  Church  after  the  Apostolic  age.  The  dialectic 
method  of  the  writer  is  to  show  how  the  utterances 


CHRIST  AMONG  THE  EARLY  DISCIPLES  167 


of  the  ideal  Christ,  or  the  inspirations  of  the 
eternal  Christ  were,  and  are,  misunderstood  and 
perverted  by  the  blindness  and  materialism  of 
the  Jewish  hearers,  who  again  are  not  the  Jews 
of  Jerusalem,  but  all  those  who  were  by  nature 
ineapable  of  grasping  the  truth.  This  polemic 
has  been  commonly  misunderstood,  and  in  all 
ages  of  the  Church  the  same  blindness  and 
materialism  has  in  many  quarters  persisted,  so 
as  to  misinterpret  the  writer,  to  turn  his  symbols 
into  facts,  his  poetry  into  prose,  his  lofty  and 
spiritualist  idealism  into  hard  creeds  and 
materialist  conceptions. 

Most  people  know  how,  in  the  Johannine 
dialogues,  the  lofty  sentences  put  in  the  mouth 
of  Christ  are  misinterpreted  by  the  hearers.  They 
know  that,  when  he  speaks  of  the  water  of  life, 
the  Samaritan  woman  thinks  that  he  means 
drinking-water,  and  when  he  speaks  of  being 
born  again,  Nicodemus  asks  how  a  man  when  he 
is  old  can  be  born  of  his  mother  a  second  time. 
But  most  people  fail  to  see  how  this  method  of 
dialectic  prevails  in  other  parts  of  the  teaching. 
When  the  Saviour  says,  “lam  the  bread  of  life,” 
the  literalists  think,  like  the  Samaritan  woman, 
of  bread  to  eat,  disregarding  the  explanatory 
verses,  “  He  that  cometh  to  me  shall  not  hunger, 
and  he  that  believeth  on  me  shall  not  thirst.” 
“  My  meat  is  to  do  the  will  of  him  that  sent  me.” 
They  carry  on  the  line  of  the  supposed  Jews, 


168  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


misunderstanding  spiritual  truth  as  the  assertion 
of  physical  fact,  degrading  and  materialising  not 
less  than  the  Samaritan  woman  herself. 

It  seems  to  me  quite  impossible  that  if  the 
Evangelist  had  taken  literally  the  phrase,  “  This 
is  my  body,”  he  should  have  in  his  account  of  the 
Last  Supper  said  not  a  word  as  to  the  partaking 
of  bread  and  wine  as  a  sacrificial  meal,  but 
should  instead  dwell  on  the  washing  of  the 
Apostles’  feet. 

In  one  of  the  sublimest  passages  of  the  Fourth 
Gospel  the  writer  transposes,  so  to  speak,  from 
the  literal  and  historic  into  the  mystic  tense, 
the  expectation  then  prevalent  among  the  disciples 
of  a  speedy  second  coming  of  their  Lord. 

When  Jesus  journeys  to  Bethany,  on  hearing 
of  the  death  of  Lazarus,  Martha,  who  represents 
the  unspiritual  and  commonplace  type  of  mind, 
says  to  him,  “  If  thou  hadst  been  here,  my 
brother  had  not  died.”  Jesus  replies  to  her, 
‘‘  Thy  brother  shall  rise  again,”  and  she,  taking 
the  phrase  in  the  manner  of  the  woman  of  Samaria, 
literally  and  without  insight,  says,  “  I  know  that 
he  shall  rise  again  in  the  resurrection  at  the  last 
day.”  And  Jesus,  as  in  other  passages  in  the 
Gospel,  at  once  turns  her  thought  from  the 
literal  to  the  spiritual  sense,  “  I  am  the  resurrec¬ 
tion,  and  the  life  :  he  that  believeth  on  me, 
though  he  die,  yet  shall  he  live  :  and  whosoever 
liveth  and  believeth  on  me  shall  never  die.”  The 


CHRIST  AMONG  THE  EARLY  DISCIPLES  169 


mere  death  of  the  body,  he  implies,  must  happen 
to  all  :  but  to  those  who  have  laid  hold  on 
eternal  life,  death  is  a  merely  unimportant 
ineident,  which  can  have  no  hold  on  the  life  of 
the  spirit.  The  phrase  of  Jesus  is  familiar  to  us 
all  from  its  constant  use  in  the  burial  service  ; 
but  how  small  a  proportion  of  those  who  listen 
to  the  utterance  in  the  most  trying  of  all  crises, 
when  our  beloved  are  taken  from  us,  takes  it  in 
the  higher  sense. 

The  Johannine  Jesus  calls  himself  the  “  Son  of 
God.”  In  the  Synoptic  tradition  this  does  not 
occur,  save  in  the  context  already  cited.  But  in 
the  time  after  the  crucifixion  the  phrase  was  at 
once  taken  by  a  party  in  the  Church  in  a  literal 
and  materialist  sense,  whence  arose  the  tale  of 
the  Virgin  Birth  at  Bethlehem.  But  the  Fourth 
Evangelist,  to  whom  such  materialism  was  ab¬ 
horrent,  could  not  accept  that  interpretation, 
but  gives  one  of  his  own.  Jesus,  he  says,^  is 
the  Son  of  God,  because  God  consecrated  him 
and  sent  him  into  the  world  :  it  was  this  divine 
consecration  that  constituted  sonship.  In  other 
passages  the  writer  goes  somewhat  further.  In 
his  proem  he  identifies  Jesus  with  the  Word  or 
Reason  in  accordance  with  which  God  created 
the  world.  Obviously,  I  cannot  here  discuss  the 
full  meaning  of  this  view,  which  was  based  on  a 
Jewish  modification  of  the  Platonic  philosophy, 

^  John  X.  36. 


170  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


and  has  a  near  parallel  in  the  writings  of  Philo, 
who,  however,  had  probably  never  heard  of  Jesus. 
In  after  days  it  was  expanded  and  modified  by 
Christian  philosophers,  such  as  Justin,  who  main¬ 
tained  that  all  the  great  men  of  past  history  who 
had  lived  in  accordance  with  reason  or  the  logos 
were  followers  of  Christ,  even  though  they  had 
never  heard  of  Jesus. 

In  the  wonderful  last  chapters  of  the  Gospel, 
Jesus  is  spoken  of  as  telling  his  followers  that  he 
had  been  with  the  Father  before  the  world  came 
into  being,  that  his  life  had  been  one  of  constant 
communion  with  God,  that  he  was  about  to 
return  to  God,  but  that  he  would  come  again 
to  the  disciples  in  spiritual  presence  to  dwell  in 
them,  as  they  should  dwell  in  him,  and  bring 
the  immanent  deity  to  dwell  in  them.  Closely 
mingled  with  this  line  of  teaching  there  is  another, 
which  on  the  surface  is  scarcely  to  be  reconciled 
with  it,  that  Jesus  would  go  to  prepare  a  place 
in  which  to  receive  his  followers  ;  and  that  his 
place  on  earth  should  be  taken  by  the  Divine 
Spirit,  the  Paraclete.  The  fact  is  that,  in 
attempting  to  translate  into  articulate  thought 
the  Christian  experience,  the  Evangelist  has 
embodied  it  in  two  ways,  and  has  not  thought  it 
necessary  to  reconcile  those  ways  one  to  another. 
In  the  same  way  St  Paul  speaks  of  God  and 
the  Spirit  of  God,  Christ  and  the  Spirit  of  Christ, 
in  a  way  quite  baffling  to  the  theologians  who 


CHRIST  AMONG  THE  EARLY  DISCIPLES  171 


want  to  form  a  consistent  metaphysical  form 
of  creed.  Into  all  these  intricate  byways  of 
thought  I  need  not  enter.  ^  I  have  only  to 
consider  the  general  orientation  of  St  Paul  and 
the  Fourth  Evangelist  in  regard  to  the  exalted 
Christ.  St  Paul  does  not  address  prayer  to 
Christ,  but  to  the  God  and  Father  whom  Christ 
revealed.  He  regards  it  as  elear  that  in  eonse- 
quence  of  the  life  and  death  of  Christ  the  way  of 
prayer  to  God  is  made  smooth,  and  the  appeal 
to  the  power  of  God  made  efficacious.  He 
assumes  that  a  ehange  of  orientation  in  the 
world  of  spirit  had  really  taken  plaee,  and  that 
God  had  been  really  and  objectively  brought 
near  to  man. 

When  the  writers  of  whom  I  speak  try  to 
express  this  fact  in  doctrine,  the  doctrine  takes 
one  of  two  courses.  Sometimes  they  speak  of 
Christ  as  a  great  High  Priest  and  Mediator,  who 
presents  the  prayers  of  Christians  at  the  throne 
of  the  Father,  which  is  the  line  specially  taken 
by  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 
Sometimes — though  this  is  a  later  development — 
they  speak  of  Christ  as  partaker  of  the  nature  of 
the  Godhead.  From  this  beginning  the  elaborate 
metaphysical  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  takes  its 
rise.  The  formulators  of  that  doctrine  no  doubt 

1  I  have  dealt  more  fully  with  the  matter  in  two  little 
works,  The  Religious  Experience  of  St  Paul  and  The  Ephesian 
Gospel. 


172  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


regarded  it  as  an  expression  in  words  of  high  and 
objective  truth.  But  the  modern  mind  can 
regard  it  only  as  an  expression  of  relative  truth, 
an  attempt  to  enclose  in  human  formulae  the 
results  of  the  spiritual  life  and  the  actual  experience 
of  the  Church. 

The  experience  which  St  Paul  tried  to  express 
in  doctrine,  and  the  Fourth  Evangelist  threw 
into  the  form  of  a  biography,  was  the  continuous 
divine  inspiration  of  the  Christian  Church.  This 
inspiration  abode  in  those  at  Jerusalem,  and 
went  with  them  in  their  missionary  journeys, 
working  within  in  peace  and  redemption,  in 
freedom  from  sin  and  a  glorious  joy  and  peace 
which  were  not  like  those  of  the  world  around  ; 
and  working  without  in  strange  signs  and  wonders, 
in  the  confounding  and  silencing  of  all  who 
opposed,  and  the  conversion  of  multitudes  to 
the  faith.  Both  St  Paul  and  the  Evangelist 
were  quite  convinced  that  the  inspiration  of  the 
society  was  something  quite  new  in  the  history 
of  the  world,  and  quite  different  from  anything 
to  be  found  outside  the  Church.  But  the  view 
of  St  Paul,  who  had  been  brought  up  by  Rabbis 
in  pre-Christian  days,  and  was  only  converted 
in  middle  life,  was  largely  different  from  that 
of  the  Evangelist  who  wrote  in  a  great  Hellenistic 
city  for  the  second  generation  of  Christians. 
To  St  Paul  the  faith  of  Christ  was  the  religion  of 
Israel,  exalted  and  spiritualised,  free  from  its 


CHRIST  IN  HISTORY  AND  EXPERIENCE  173 


outward  and  legal  wrappings,  transmuted  by  a 
new  divine  influence.  And  the  view  of  the 
writer  of  Hebrews  was  not  dissimilar.  All  his 
heroes  are  heroes  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  he 
draws  abundant  parallels,  alike  in  history  and 
rites,  between  the  faith  of  Israel  and  Christianity. 
The  Fourth  Evangelist  moves  in  a  different 
atmosphere.  To  him  the  Jews  are  the  stupid  and 
bitter  opponents  of  the  Faith.  And  the  Faith 
is  such  as  will  commend  itself  to  every  one  who 
is  a  son  of  light  and  a  lover  of  spiritual  truth. 
“  Every  one  that  is  of  the  truth  heareth  my 
voice,”  says  his  Jesus.  Christ,  he  writes,  “  is  the 
light  that  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into 
the  world.”  He  does  not  put  Socrates  and 
Plato  with  Moses  and  the  prophets  among  the 
precursors  of  Christianity  ;  such  cosmopolitanism 
as  that  implies  had  to  wait  for  Justin  and  Clement ; 
but  he  himself  owes  almost  as  much  to  the 
Greeks  as  to  the  Jews,  though  his  Hellenism  has 
passed  through  the  medium  of  the  Jews  of  the 
Dispersion. 

Christ  in  History  and  Experience 

Certainly  the  transition  is  abrupt,  if  we  pass 
directly  from  the  New  Testament  to  the  twentieth 
century.  But  clearly  I  cannot  attempt  to  trace 
even  the  outline  of  the  continuous  thought  of  the 
Church  in  regard  to  her  Founder.  We  must  at 
once  come  to  the  question  how  the  continued 


174  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


life  of  the  Church,  the  union  of  Christians  with 
their  unseen  Head,  can  be  justified  in  the  light  of  a 
spiritual  interpretation  of  the  Universe.  Have 
such  sayings  as  that  Christ  is  the  Head  and  the 
Church  the  body  united  to  him,  that  Christ 
lives,  and  the  believer  lives  in  him,  a  real  and 
intelligible  meaning  ?  As  I  have  elsewhere  ob¬ 
served,  the  Christian  Church  is  built  upon  Jesus 
Christ,  upon  the  hyphen  which  connects  Jesus 
with  Christ,  the  human  and  historic  Jesus  with 
the  exalted  and  mystic  Christ.  That  hyphen 
stands  for  a  gap  which  has  been  in  all  ages  over¬ 
leaped  by  the  faith  and  the  practical  necessities 
of  the  Church.  But  is  it  possible  to  construct 
across  the  gap  a  bridge  of  reason  to  satisfy  those 
who  dare  not  make  a  leap  ?  or  at  all  events  to 
prove  to  those  who  are  ready  to  make  the  leap 
that  the  gap  is  not  an  impassable  abyss  ?  In 
our  days  the  justification  of  the  hyphen  cannot 
come  from  any  a  priori  or  metaphysical  reasoning  : 
the  day  of  the  validity  of  such  reasoning  passed 
away  with  the  rise  of  the  Kantian  philosophy. 
Since  the  days  of  Kant,  those  who  have  not  read 
his  works,  or  perhaps  who  even  have  not  heard 
of  them,  proceed  on  different  paths  of  thought 
from  those  in  vogue  before  he  wrote.  The  mental 
atmosphere  has  been  changed.  Of  course,  I  do  not 
mean  that  the  whole  change  is  due  to  a  single 
thinker.  It  is  a  great  world  process,  which  only 
culminated  and  became  articulate  in  Hume  and 


CHRIST  IN  HISTORY  AND  EXPERIENCE  175 


Kant ;  and  the  roots  of  which  lie  in  the  attitude 
of  the  modern  world  in  regard  to  thought. 

Our  proofs  must  be  derived  from  two  classes 
of  facts  ;  not,  of  course,  from  the  facts  of  physical 
science,  which  help  only  in  method  and  mental 
tone,  but  from  the  facts  of  history  on  the  one 
side  and  psychology  on  the  other. 

The  relevant  fact  of  history  is  that  from  the 
time  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  and  more  especially 
from  the  time  of  his  death  on  the  cross,  a  new 
spirit  and  tendency  came  into  the  world.  It 
was  not  the  spirit  of  the  Jewish  prophets.  Lofty 
and  noble  as  was  their  religion,  it  belonged  only 
to  the  Jewish  race,  and  the  body  in  whom  it  was 
most  fully  incorporated,  the  Pharisees,  were  the 
most  bitter  opponents  of  Jesus,  and  the  sternest 
persecutors  of  his  followers.  But  between  the 
death  of  the  Founder  and  the  preaching  of  his 
immediate  followers,  we  find  a  complete  change 
of  conditions  which  history  must  try  to  account 
for.  We  have  no  satisfactory  consecutive  account 
of  the  events  of  those  years,  for  the  early  chapters 
of  Acts  are,  from  the  point  of  view  of  scientific 
history,  extremely  defective.  But  we  can  trace 
dimly  a  course  of  events  without  equal  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  We  find  the  disciples,  who 
at  the  time  of  their  Master’s  death  were  panic- 
stricken  and  given  over  to  despair,  suddenly  with 
a  high  courage  proclaiming  that  he  was  not  dead, 
but  with  and  among  them,  that  God  had  highly 


176  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


exalted  him,  and  that  they  derived  from  him  a 
power  which  was  irresistible  over  the  souls  and 
even  the  bodies  of  men  ;  and  further,  that  by 
faith  in  him  all  men  could  shake  off  the  trammels 
of  an  evil  condition  and  become  partakers  of 
eternal  life. 

Not  long  after  this,  the  Epistles  of  St  Paul, 
some  of  the  most  trustworthy  and  authentic  of 
the  documents  of  the  ancient  world,  mirror  to 
us  the  character  and  spirit  of  the  writer,  and 
show  us  how  in  his  life  there  came  a  crisis  parallel 
to  that  which  had  recently  taken  place  in  the 
Jewish  world.  A  crucial  moment  in  the  rise  of 
Christianity  occurred  when  in  the  consciousness 
of  Paul,  or  perhaps  rather  in  the  unconscious 
levels  of  his  spirit,  there  took  place  a  marvellous 
change,  and  he  passed  from  the  religion  of  Israel 
to  the  religion  of  Christ.  A  flood  of  spiritual 
influence  had  been  rising  and  rising  at  the  door  of 
his  heart,  but  he  kept  the  door  rigidly  closed  : 
then  suddenly  the  door  gave  way ;  and  his 
whole  being  was  flooded  with  a  sudden  inspiration, 
which  never  thereafter  failed  him,  but  led  him 
onward  through  a  life  of  complete  self-devotion 
and  a  career  of  missionary  enterprise  to  martyr¬ 
dom  at  Rome,  and  an  immortal  position  among 
the  saints  and  founders  of  the  Church. 

I  do  not  see  any  reasonable  way  of  accounting 
for  these  startling  phenomena  save  by  the 
recognition  of  a  great  and  sudden  change  in  the 


CHRIST  IN  HISTORY  AND  EXPERIENCE  177 


conditions  of  the  spiritual  ground  of  being.  The 
nature  of  inspiration  was  modified  ;  and  a  fresh 
series  of  divine  ideas  was  in  process  of  taking 
form  in  the  world,  taking  form,  no  doubt,  through 
the  human  agency  of  preaching  and  psychical 
dominance,  but  arising  out  of  the  ocean  depths 
of  spiritual  being.  For  it  is  to  be  observed  that 
the  religion  preached  by  the  first  Apostles  and 
St  Paul  was  the  religion  of  their  Master,  only  in 
some  degree  modified  by  the  changed  conditions. 
If  we  take  the  theology  and  ethics  of  Paul,  item 
by  item,  we  shall  find  that  it  is  in  its  most  im¬ 
portant  features  a  working  out  of  the  Gospel 
of  the  Synoptists.^  Only  in  one  respect  does  it 
completely  differ  from  the  earlier  doctrine  in 
that  it  centres  not  in  the  fatherhood  of  God  and 
the  righteousness  of  the  divine  will,  but  in  the 
revelation  of  God  in  Christ,  to  whom  every 
believer  was  united  in  a  spiritual  relationship, 
and  who  had  by  his  death  and  resurrection 
redeemed  him  from  the  powers  of  evil. 

In  the  course  of  human  events,  as  in  the  course 
of  nature,  no  event  can  take  place  without  a 
cause  ;  and  I  know  not  how  the  phenomena  of 
early  Christianity  can  be  accounted  for,  except 
on  the  hypothesis  of  a  fresh  turn,  a  new  orientation 
of  the  spiritual  power  which  is  at  the  heart  of 
the  world  of  life  and  humanity. 

1  For  an  expansion  of  these  sentences,  I  may  be  allowed 
to  refer  to  my  Religious  Experience  of  St  Paul. 


12 


178  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


And  whereas  Christianity  has,  in  the  succeeding 
ages,  suffered  from  every  kind  of  corruption,  of 
materialism  and  degradation,  yet  it  has  always 
from  time  to  time  shown  a  marvellous  power  of 
renewing  its  youth,  of  freshly  embodying  one 
side  or  another  of  the  early  teaching,  of  attacking 
and  overthrowing  some  hindrance  which  stood 
in  its  way.  Like  the  phoenix,  it  is  ever  turning 
back  from  fossilisation  or  decay,  and  it  draws 
from  an  unseen  source  the  power  to  dominate  the 
world,  or  at  least  that  part  of  the  world  which 
consists  of  the  children  of  light. 

The  kingdom  of  God  becomes  the  Church  of 
Christ.  Its  advent  is  in  a  sense  cataclysmic  : 
but  the  cataclysm  does  not,  as  the  whole  Jewish 
nation  had  expected,  come  visibly  and  materially, 
but  works  from  the  consciousness  of  the  human 
race  outward. 

In  such  a  view  as  this  there  is  nothing  in¬ 
consistent  with  historic  method  and  principle. 
For  history  shows  that  the  revelation  of  the 
divine  ideas  has  not  been  an  uniform  and  regular 
process,  but  one  which  has  had  crises,  times  of 
higher  inspiration  which  have  cut  into  the  more 
ordinary  process  of  enlightenment.  Into  the 
general  soul,  as  often  into  the  souls  of  individuals, 
there  has  come  a  sudden  flooding  by  spiritual 
power.  In  the  case  of  individuals  we  call  it 
conversion  ;  in  the  case  of  nations  or  of  great 
societies  we  hardly  know  what  to  call  it,  but 


CHRIST  IN  HISTORY  AND  EXPERIENCE  179 


we  recognise  its  existence,  and  we  see  its  per¬ 
manent  effects  in  the  world.  Such  a  change 
came  notably  in  the  sixth  century  b.c.,  when  in 
Greece  poetry  and  art  came  into  being,  and  the 
world  of  culture  set  out  on  its  great  career. 
Such  a  change  came  over  Israel  when  in  the  time  of 
Cyrus  the  Persian  the  people  returned  to  rebuild 
Jerusalem,  and  became  far  more  than  before  a 
people  of  unique  consciousness  of  God.  Such  a 
time  was  the  sixteenth  century  of  our  era,  when 
all  the  forces  which  were  to  mould  and  control 
the  development  of  modern  society  came  into 
being,  or  started  on  a  new  career,  the  era  of  the 
Reformation,  of  the  purification  of  the  Roman 
Church,  of  the  revival  of  Greek  letters  and  art. 
The  era  of  the  rise  of  Christianity  was  the  greatest 
of  all  human  crises,  as  we  recognise  every  time 
we  date  a  letter  from  the  Christian  era.  But  it 
has  not  in  history  stood  quite  alone.  Its  summit 
overtops  that  of  other  heights  of  the  same  range  ; 
but  they  are  of  similar  formation. 

Such  periods  were  not  really  so  isolated  as  they 
may  seem  to  a  student  of  history.  They  were  led 
up  to  by  a  series  of  efforts,  and  a  combination  of 
conditions.  On  the  preparation  of  the  world  for 
Christianity  great  books  have  been  written,  and 
still  greater  might  well  be  written.  It  is  sufficient 
here  to  say  that  at  no  period  and  in  no  place 
could  the  rising  faith  have  found  circumstances 
so  favourable  for  its  spread  and  growth.  And 


180  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


those  who  believe  in  the  spiritual  basis  of  history 
will  recognise  that  the  outward  preparation  and 
the  inward  inspiration  belong  together  in  what 
we  may  venture  to  call  the  divine  purpose. 

And  when  the  stage  was  thus  prepared,  there 
came  on  it  the  great  and  unique  Protagonist.  It 
is  through  exalted  personalities  that  the  divine 
ideas  become  concentrated  and  reflected  on 
mankind.  The  divine  logos  or  word  is  revealed 
by  prophet  and  by  saint ;  and  Jesus  Christ  so 
far  excelled  all  the  prophets  that  the  Fourth 
Evangelist  was  justifled  in  regarding  him  as  in  a 
new  sense  the  Son  of  God,  as  the  logos  incarnate. 
A  new  way  was  opened  between  the  Spirit  and 
man  ;  and  by  that  way  a  new  inspiration  poured 
into  the  human  world.  The  great  Incarnation 
took  place,  and  in  its  wake  followed  the  Incarna¬ 
tion  in  the  Apostles  and  saints  who  continued 
on  earth  the  life  of  the  Founder. 

In  the  explanation  of  the  Incarnation,  Greek 
philosophy  found  a  great  fleld  for  centuries. 
None  of  the  explanations  which  were  reached  by 
the  thinkers  of  the  Church  is  flnal  or  objectively 
perfect.  And  we,  too,  may  well  spend  our  best 
powers  in  the  search  for  an  explanation  which 
will  suit  the  conditions  of  modern  thought. 
But  whatever  we  may  think  of  the  explanations, 
the  facts  to  be  explained  remain. 

It  is  clear  that  the  appeal  to  history  will  not 
convert  a  doubter  to  faith  in  Christ.  If  a  man 


CHRIST  IN  HISTORY  AND  EXPERIENCE  181 


have  that  faith,  he  will  defend  it  on  grounds  of 
history  ;  if  he  be  of  an  intellectual  temper  he 
will  find  the  need  of  historic  justification  pressing. 
But  the  appeal  which  will  rouse  the  emotions 
and  stir  the  will  must  derive  from  another  source 
than  history.  That  source  is  obviously  experi¬ 
ence,  spiritual  experience  of  aid  given  in  the 
inner  life,  of  sin  resisted  and  peace  attained. 
All  through  the  history  of  Christianity  faith  has 
been  based  on  such  experience,  “  They  looked 
unto  him  and  were  lightened,  and  their  faces 
were  not  ashamed.”  The  reality  of  spiritual  aid 
amid  the  trials  and  difficulties  of  life  is  the  solid 
basis  of  religion  ;  and  unless  it  were  a  solid  basis 
religion  would  vanish  from  the  earth.  The 
Christian  experience  is  the  root  alike  of  the 
Christian  religion  and  the  Christian  Church. 

And  the  Christian  is  often  indisposed  to  discuss 
the  roots  of  his  faith  in  experience.  He  is 
content  to  say,  ‘‘  Whereas  I  was  blind,  now  I  see.” 
His  life  had  been  poor  and  shrivelled  ;  by  faith 
in  Christ  it  has  become  rich  and  free.  He  has 
found  a  Saviour  and  has  been  saved  from  sin, 
from  the  assaults  of  evil  powers,  from  his  own 
baser  nature. 

But  from  our  present  point  of  view  this  is  not 
enough.  We  are  considering  whether  Christian 
faith  has  a  logical  justification  ;  and  it  is  no 
reply  to  intellectual  difficulties  to  say  that  the 
thing  works. 


182  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


It  seems  to  me  that  St  Paul,  in  a  memorable 
phrase,  has  pointed  out  the  true  justification  of 
the  Christ- worship  which  in  his  day  was  coming 
into  the  Church.  Even  though  we  have  known 
Christ  after  the  flesh,  yet  now  henceforth  know 
we  him  so  no  more.”  ^  The  eternal  Christ  is  the 
immortal  reality,  of  which  the  human  Jesus  was 
the  reflection  in  the  visible  world.  It  was  the 
eternal  Christ  who  was  the  inspiration  of  the 
Church.  It  was  the  eternal  Christ  who  appeared 
to  Paul  on  the  way,  and  sent  him  with  changed 
heart  on  his  great  mission.  It  is  the  eternal 
Christ  who  is  the  life  of  the  Church  and  its 
perpetual  head. 

There  has  been  in  the  Church,  and  especially  in 
the  modern  Protestant  branches  of  the  Church,  a 
great  deal  of  that  Jesus  worship  which  has  tended 
to  place  Christ  after  the  flesh  in  the  seat  of  the 
Eternal.  It  has  resulted  in  strange  aberrations, 
such  as  the  notion  that  Jesus  in  the  cradle  was 
at  the  same  time  on  the  throne  of  the  Universe, 
that  God  died  on  the  cross,  that  all  through  his 
mortal  life  Jesus  was  conscious  of  superhuman 
powers.  It  is  embodied  in  many  of  our  hymns, 
and  inspires  some  of  our  litanies.  But  it  is  a 
view  which  becomes  utterly  impossible  to  anyone 
with  a  historic  sense,  even  if  he  has  not  been 
educated  in  historic  method.  For  no  one  can 
read  the  Synoptic  Gospels  with  even  moderate 

1  2  Cor.  V.  16. 


CHRIST  IN  HISTORY  AND  EXPERIENCE  183 


attention  and  intelligence,  without  seeing  that 
they  portray  a  marvellous  being  indeed,  but  one 
who  lived  as  a  man  among  men,  whose  knowledge 
was  limited,  who  felt  the  human  feelings  of 
indignation,  depression  to  the  verge  of  despair, 
exultation,  love,  and  hostility.  Jesus  was  tempted 
on  all  points  as  we  are,  though  without  yielding. 
He  spent  nights  in  prayer  to  God  :  he  felt  that 
his  own  will  had  to  be  suppressed,  in  order  to 
be  in  harmony  with  the  divine  will. 

At  the  same  time,  the  historic  Jesus  appears 
to  have  been  in  a  clear  sense  unique.  His 
teaching  was  loftier  and  more  spiritual  than  was 
ever  uttered  by  man.  Elsewhere  I  have  spoken 
of  it  as  pure  spiritual  oxygen,  with  no  admixture 
of  the  nitrogen  which  abounds  in  the  teaching  of 
Plato,  of  Epictetus,  of  the  greatest  of  non- 
Christian  writers.  His  will  was  always  on  the 
side  of  God,  even  when  he  said,  “Not  my  will,  but 
thine,  be  done.”  The  greater  the  saintliness  of 
any  among  his  followers  the  more  he  has  realised 
the  unapproachable  superiority  of  the  Master. 
So  in  the  case  of  ordinary  uncritical  believers 
there  is  little  fear  of  too  absolute  a  devotion  or 
too  exalted  a  worship  of  the  Saviour  even  in  his 
historic  revelation.  Yet  the  higher  Christian 
view  is  always  that  of  St  Paul.  Now  henceforth 
we  must  know  Christ  not  after  the  flesh  but 
after  the  Spirit. 

What  became  of  the  body  of  Jesus  we  do  not 


184  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


know,  and  never  can  know  :  nor  need  we  curiously 
inquire.  His  personality  made  on  his  disciples 
an  impression  which  raised  them  to  a  new  level 
of  being,  and  through  them  the  reverberations 
of  it  have  echoed  from  man  to  man  throughout 
history.  And  the  impression  has  been  fixed  and 
preserved  through  the  ages  by  the  biographies 
which  some  of  those  nearest  to  him  were  inspired 
to  commit  first  to  the  disciples  and  then  to 
writing.  It  is  for  the  succeeding  ages  a  great 
gain  that  there  is  not  one  biography  only,  which 
might  have  become,  like  the  Koran,  a  guide 
regarded  as  infallible,  to  limit  the  thought  of 
the  Church,  and  to  restrain  it  within  rigid 
boundaries.  In  the  three  Synoptic  Gospels  the 
human  element  is  obvious  to  every  serious 
student ;  we  see  the  great  original  variously 
reflected  in  different  minds,  so  that  we  now 
cannot  be  certain  of  the  objective  truth  of  the 
records,  but  recover  a  liberty  to  go  behind  them 
by  pious  imagination.  We  are  obliged,  by  the 
nature  of  our  evidence,  to  form  beyond  and 
behind  the  records  the  ideal  humanity  of  the 
Saviour.  And  we  gain  also  glimpses  of  the 
divine  spirit  which  was  behind  the  humanity  ; 
and  which,  after  the  death  on  the  cross,  was 
revealed  more  and  more  to  the  inspired  conscious¬ 
ness  of  the  society.  The  Fourth  Evangelist  had 
a  clearer  view  of  this  indwelling  power.  From 
the  modern  point  of  view,  dominated  by  a 


THE  ETERNAL  CHRIST 


185 


scientific  view  of  history,  it  may  be  regarded  as 
a  misfortune  that  he  tried  to  construct  an  actual 
biography  dictated  by  it,  just  as,  from  the 
historic  point  of  view,  we  should  wish  a  more 
accurate  and  objective  narrative  from  the  Synop- 
tists.  But  there  is  deep  meaning  in  the  saying 
that  the  folly  of  God  is  wiser  than  man  ;  and  it 
is  very  reasonable  to  think  that  if  the  Evangelists 
had  been  by  some  miracle  raised  out  of  the 
unscientific  views  of  history  which  prevailed  in 
their  time,  the  spiritual  loss  to  the  Church  would 
have  outweighed  the  material  gain. 

The  Eternal  Christ 

The  eternal  Christ,  the  ever-living  word  of 
God,  who  spoke  by  the  prophets  of  Judaea  and 
the  moralists  of  Greece,  was  revealed  through 
the  veil  of  the  flesh  by  the  teaching  and  the 
suffering  of  Jesus,  but  was  also  gradually  revealed 
in  the  Christian  society.  As  the  Fourth  Evan¬ 
gelist  teaches,  it  was  expedient  for  the  Church 
that  Jesus  should  depart  in  the  flesh,  in  order 
that  the  Spirit  of  God  should  come  to  dwell  in 
the  society.  The  Evangelist  saw  that  those  who 
should  believe  without  seeing  were  on  a  higher 
level  than  those  who  had  seen ;  that  the  invisible 
ruler  would  become  even  more  fully  the  Head  of 
the  society  than  Jesus  had  been  when  alive; 
that  the  great  work  of  the  Founder  was  not 
his  teaching,  nor  even  his  suffering,  but  the  new 


186  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


orientation  of  the  divine  in  relation  to  the  human 
whieh  is  summed  up  in  the  word  Incarnation. 
That  the  Evangelist  had  wholly  inadequate 
notions  as  to  history,  though  it  shows  him  to 
have  been  quite  unscientific,  does  not  really 
interfere  with  the  splendour  of  the  revelation 
which  he  had  to  give  to  the  world. 

Looking  at  modern  movements  from  this 
point  of  view,  they  change  their  character.  We 
have  to  judge  them  not  according  to  the  flesh, 
but  according  to  the  Spirit.  The  movement  of 
the  German  critics  and  the  English  literalists 
“  back  to  Jesus  ”  is  from  the  point  of  view  of 
historic  science  fully  justified,  and  from  the 
ethical  point  of  view  of  great  advantage,  though 
liable  to  produce  aberrations.  At  the  same  time 
we  see  that  the  strong  dislike  which  many  earnest 
Christians  feel,  for  views  which  they  consider 
Unitarian,  rests  upon  a  real  religious  foundation, 
though  it  is  based  also  on  misapprehension.  For 
if  Christ  is  to  be  the  centre  of  Christian  worship, 
it  must  be  the  divine  Christ  or  the  purely  divine 
in  the  historic  Jesus.  Not  understanding  the 
distinction,  which  the  Church  has  ever  insisted 
upon,  between  the  human  and  the  divine  in 
Jesus,  they  have  taken  Jesus  as  wholly  divine, 
and  free  from  human  limitations.  By  so  doing 
they  have  preserved  certain  spiritual  values, 
but  unfortunately  they  have  taken  up  a  position 
in  a  house  built  on  the  sand,  and  in  no  condition 


THE  ETERNAL  CHRIST  187 

to  resist  the  winds  and  the  waves  of  historic 
criticism. 

To  divide  the  life  of  Christ  into  three  successive 
periods — first,  pre-existence,  then  a  life  in  the 
world,  then  a  period  of  exaltation — is  only  possible 
to  those  who  accept  the  monadic  view  of  person¬ 
ality,  and  regard  time  as  a  condition  of  the 
existence  of  the  eternal.  Such  was  not  the  view, 
according  to  the  New  Testament,  of  Jesus  him¬ 
self,  or  of  the  earlier  preachers  who  thought  that 
Jesus  came  into  being  at  the  nativity.  It  does 
not  give  us  a  really  divine  and  eternal  Christ, 
but  a  lofty  angel  who  humbled  himself,  as  we 
have  it  in  the  sublime  poem  of  Milton,  and 
generally  in  Arianism.  We  have  indications  of 
such  a  view  in  the  literature  of  the  second  genera¬ 
tion  of  Christians.  They  were  feeling  their  way 
towards  an  explanation  of  the  inspiration  of  the 
Christian  Society,  and  such  a  view  naturally 
presented  itself  to  them.  But  it  is  not  really 
the  bottom  of  the  belief  of  either  St  Paul  or  the 
Fourth  Evangelist.  Paul  is  devoted  to  the  service 
not  of  Christ  after  the  flesh,  but  of  Christ  after 
the  Spirit.  The  Fourth  Evangelist  says  that 
Christ  is  the  light  that  lightens  every  man  who 
comes  into  the  world. 

We  can  only  reach  the  higher  and  more  funda¬ 
mental  teaching  of  early  Christianity  by  taking 
another  view.  As  the  eternal  Christ  is  the  side 
of  God  turned  towards  the  world,  God  in  relation 


188  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


to  man,  so  the  human  Jesus  was  an  embodiment 
under  the  forms  of  space  and  time  of  the  eternal 
Christ,  and  not  under  the  forms  of  space  and 
time  only,  but  under  local  and  temporary  condi¬ 
tions,  Jewish  racial  feelings,  a  very  limited 
knowledge  of  the  facts  of  nature  and  history,  a 
body  subject  to  weariness  and  suffering,  a  soul 
subject  to  moods  of  exultation  and  depression. 
Only  in  the  will,  and  in  close  dependence  on 
divine  help,  was  Jesus  a  full  exponent  of  the 
divine.  But  that  consecration  of  the  will  did 
certainly  enable  him  to  see  further  into  the  ideas 
of  God  and  the  nature  of  human  life  than  anyone 
has  seen  before  or  since.  He  could  be  mistaken, 
as  he  himself  confessed,  as  to  the  time  and 
manner  of  the  coming  of  the  divine  kingdom. 
He  could  bitterly  feel  the  treachery  of  his  nearest 
friends.  He  could  even  for  a  moment  shrink  from 
coming  suffering.  But  it  was  only  for  a  moment ; 
and  the  saying,  “  Not  my  will,  but  thy  will,”  is 
the  most  memorable  saying  of  all  time,  and  the 
greatest  crisis  in  the  whole  history  of  the  human 
race. 

The  nature  of  the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ 
naturally  attracted  those  in  the  early  centuries  of 
our  era  who  had  been  brought  up  on  Greek 
philosophy  ;  and  later  it  furnished  the  Schoolmen 
with  innumerable  texts  for  their  finely-wrought 
theories  ;  but  it  does  not  greatly  interest  the 
modern  mind.  What  is  of  far  greater  moment 


THE  ETERNAL  CHRIST 


189 


in  our  times  is  the  true  interpretation  of  the 
doctrines  of  the  Incarnation  and  the  Atonement, 
which  have  been  at  the  basis  of  Christianity  as 
received  in  Protestant  countries.  To  those  who 
think  with  the  present  writer,  the  doctrine  of  the 
Incarnation  is  fundamental.  But  it  is  a  process 
which  has  always  been  going  on.  From  the 
earliest  historic  times  the  divine  ideas  and 
impulses  have  been  gradually  moulding  the  world 
and  making  it  a  revelation  of  the  divine  order. 
In  the  life  of  Jesus  the  process  took  a  new  and  a 
nobler  form,  and  it  has  been  continued  down  to 
our  own  days  by  the  Christian  society.  To 
follow  the  divine  ideas,  to  surrender  one’s  own 
will  to  the  will  of  God,  to  try  to  remould  the 
world  by  the  help  of  that  will  has  been  in  all 
ages  the  purpose  of  Christianity.  In  a  measure 
it  has  also  been  the  purpose  of  every  noble 
endeavour,  whether  within  or  without  the  Church  ; 
but  the  Christian  inspiration  has  been  of  a  special 
character,  never  separated  from  contact  with 
the  life  of  Jesus  on  earth,  and  striving  ever  to 
baptize  into  the  life  of  the  Eternal  Christ  all 
human  activities  and  endeavours. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Atonement  also,  greatly  as 
it  has  been  degraded  and  materialised  in  some 
bodies  of  Christians,  has  yet  an  inner  meaning  for 
all  time.  The  external  fact  of  the  Crucifixion 
was  combined  with  the  internal  fact  of  the  total 
surrender  of  the  will  of  Jesus.  And  on  these 


190  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 

realities  has  been  based  the  doctrine  of  the 
Atonement,  which  has  played  a  great  part  in 
the  history  of  Protestant  Christianity.  It  seems 
to  us  unfortunate  that,  when  he  formulated  the 
doctrine,  St  Paul  made  the  Atonement  of  Christ 
correlative  to  the  Fall  of  Adam.  As  by  the 
sin  of  Adam  all  fell,  so  by  the  self-devotion  of 
Christ  the  consequences  of  that  primal  sin  were 
done  away,  and  man  was  reconciled  to  God. 
St  Paul  regarded  the  sin  and  the  self-sacrifice  as 
events  of  history,  and  so  they  were  generally 
accepted  until  the  scientific  notion  of  history 
prevailed.  Then  it  was  recognised  that  the  tale 
of  the  Garden  of  Eden  and  the  fall  of  man  was 
not  historic,  but  a  piece  of  mythology,  to  which 
parallels  exist  in  the  cosmogonies  of  other  eastern 
races.  Yet,  quite  inconsistently,  the  Atonement 
was  still  in  many  quarters  regarded  as  an  event 
in  history.  The  breach  between  God  and  man 
was  regarded  as  mythical,  but  the  filling  of  that 
breach  was  accepted  as  historical.  This  is  a 
view  which  it  is  impossible  to  maintain.  But  if 
we  remove  both  events  from  the  field  of  history 
to  the  realm  of  religious  experience,  and  make 
them  stand  for  the  natural  revolt  of  man  against 
divine  control,  and  the  submission  of  man  to  that 
control  by  the  action  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ  in 
the  heart,  we  may  still  preserve  their  essence  in  a 
form  not  liable  to  the  attack  of  historic  criticism. 

The  literal  acceptance  of  the  Pauline  doctrine 


THE  ETERNAL  CHRIST 


191 


of  the  Atonement  has  been  a  great  part  of  that 
worship  of  the  historic  Jesus,  which  has  been, 
beyond  all  denial,  to  many  the  way  of  salvation, 
an  enthusiasm  to  raise  them  from  a  life  of  sin 
and  selfishness  to  a  place  in  the  divine  kingdom. 
But  it  is  not  the  highest  form  of  Christianity, 
nor  that  which  has  attracted  the  finer  spirits. 
It  is  the  Eternal  Christ,  dimly  seen,  through  the 
veil  of  the  life  of  the  historic  Jesus,  which  has 
been  the  inspiration  of  the  Church,  and  which 
has  enabled  her  often  to  renew  her  youth  after 
ages  of  decay  and  convention. 

And  since  Christ  lives  on,  not  only  in  heaven, 
but  on  earth,  those  of  his  followers  who  live  in 
his  life  and  repeat  his  self-devotion  may  also 
well  be  said  to  carry  on  and  complete  the  process 
of  the  Atonement.  As  early  as  the  prophesies  of 
Isaiah  we  find  the  germs  of  the  doctrine  that 
the  self-surrender  of  the  good  tends  to  the  redemp¬ 
tion  of  mankind  from  the  power  of  evil.  It  is  a 
great  law  of  the  spiritual  world,  and  a  law  which 
becomes  far  more  intelligible  if  we  accept  the 
view  of  the  nature  of  spirit  advocated  in  the 
present  work.  St  Paul  thought  that  his  own 
sufferings  tended  to  supplement  the  sufferings  of 
Christ ;  and  the  same  holds  good  of  the  saints  of 
all  ages.  Consciously  or  unconsciously,  we  all 
depend  for  any  victory  over  sin  or  any  advance 
in  the  divine  life,  both  on  the  free  grace  of  God 
and  on  the  results  of  the  self-denial  and  self- 


192  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


dedication  of  an  innumerable  host  of  our  pre¬ 
decessors,  who  by  treading  the  ways  of  self- 
sacrifice  have  made  them  far  smoother  and  easier 
for  our  feet. 

All  this  becomes  clear  if  we  try  to  work  out  the 
lines  of  Christian  doctrine  according  to  the  methods 
of  modern  psychology.  And  we  are  bound  to 
do  this  so  far  as  we  can.  The  teaching  of  the 
Gospels  is  that  we  are  bound  to  love  God  not 
only  with  the  heart  and  will,  but  also  with  the 
mind  or  intelligence  {dianoia),  and  the  mind  of 
the  Church  has  worked  steadily  on  the  problems 
of  Christology  at  all  periods,  first  in  the  age  of 
the  great  Greek  Fathers,  second  in  the  age  of 
Scholasticism,  and  third,  since  Kant  and  Schleier- 
macher,  on  the  lines  of  mental  science.  But  the 
minds  of  most  men  are  not  mapped  out  in  an 
orderly  way.  They  are  not  like  a  photograph, 
or  even  a  carefully  painted  landscape,  but  a 
vague  scheme  of  lights  and  shades,  of  colours 
blended  into  a  general  effect.  Very  often  an 
inference,  which  to  a  logical  reasoner  will  seem 
evident,  will  appear  to  them  to  be  offensive,  or 
to  be  near  to  blasphemy.  So  it  is,  and  so  it  must 
be.  Strong  feeling,  and  above  all  personal  loyalty, 
will  cut  across  the  paths  of  thought  and  distort 
them.  The  Athanasian  Creed  says  that  whoso¬ 
ever  will  be  saved  must  thus  think  of  the  Trinity. 
All  that  a  modern  theologian  can  say  is,  he  that 
will  think  in  harmony  with  fact  and  experience 


THE  ETERNAL  CHRIST 


193 


must  thus  think  of  the  Trinity.  Those  who  do 
not  care  for  accuracy  of  thought  have  no  need 
to  take  up  the  subject  at  all. 

In  the  narrative  of  the  Temptation,  Jesus  is 
represented  as  meeting  the  monstrous  claim  to 
worship  set  forth  by  the  Tempter  with  the  words, 
“  Thou  shalt  worship  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  him 
only  shalt  thou  serve.”  It  was  an  adoption,  or 
rather  an  adaptation,  of  a  fundamental  phrase  in 
the  religion  of  Israel.  But  it  has  a  meaning  for 
modern  days.  For  we  may  fairly  say  that  in  so  far 
as  the  worship  of  the  Eternal  Christ  is  a  worship 
of  God,  it  is  justified.  But  in  so  far  as  it  is  a 
worship  of  what  was  temporary  and  racial  in 
Jesus,  it  is  excluded  by  the  Master  himself.  To 
many  of  the  saints  of  the  Church  there  has  been 
vouchsafed  what  they  confidently  believed  to  be 
spiritual  communion  with  their  exalted  Master. 
Some  have  even  seen  him  in  a  vision,  or  heard 
words  from  him.  Herein  they  may  claim  to 
follow  in  the  steps  of  St  Paul.  But  with  St  Paul 
they  will  say  that  it  is  Christ  in  the  spirit,  and 
not  Christ  after  the  flesh,  whom  they  have  known. 

In  the  history  of  Christian  doctrine  we  con¬ 
stantly  find  the  divine  ideas  imperfectly  embodied, 
mixed  with  temporary  elements,  coloured  by  the 
mists  of  time.  Thus  it  has  been  with  the  idea  of 
Christ.  Some  of  these  temporary  elements  we 
have  learned  to  recognise,  and  to  discern  their 

limitations ;  to  others  most  of  us  still  cling. 

13 


194  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


The  notion  of  the  great  white  throne  before  which 
all  nations  are  called  to  receive  judgment  has, 
considered  as  an  anticipation  of  historic  event, 
almost  passed  from  our  minds.  When  we  read 
the  sublime  chapter  in  Matthew  in  which  the 
last  judgment  is  described,  and  even  when  we 
read  St  Paul’s  account  of  the  general  rising  from 
the  dead  and  what  follows,  we  easily  realise  that 
these  descriptions  cover  much  illusion,  that  the 
final  judgment  is  individual,  not  universal ;  and 
even  that  it  is  not  confined  to  the  moment  of 
death,  but  is  working  at  every  stage  of  life.  But 
our  disillusion  on  some  points  need  not  make  us 
sceptical  as  to  the  great  reality  of  the  divine 
judgment  of  life  and  human  responsibility. 

In  the  same  way  for  most  refiective  people,  the 
phrase  of  St  Paul,  when  he  speaks  of  his  desire 
to  depart  and  to  be  with  Christ,  does  not  seem 
one  to  be  taken  quite  literally.  They  do  not 
expect  literally,  when  freed  from  the  body,  to 
come  into  the  presence  of  a  sublimated  human 
Jesus.  But  they  hope  to  pass  into  a  state  in 
which,  in  some  way  which  we  cannot  define,  the 
communion  of  their  spirits  with  the  spiritual  and 
eternal  Christ  will  become  closer  and  more  inti¬ 
mate.  Their  hope  is  based  less  upon  the  letter  of 
Scripture  than  on  the  spiritual  experience  of  life. 
To  those  who  are  able  and  who  prefer  to  cling  to 
what  is  illusion,  no  harm  will  come ;  but  the  illusion 
is  only  the  husk,  the  other  the  grain  in  the  husk. 


THE  ETERNAL  CHRIST 


195 


Many  earnest  Christians  have  a  strong  dislike 
to  Unitarian  teaehing  :  and  their  instinet  is  right, 
though  it  usually  hides  mueh  eonfusion  of  thought. 
In  a  sense,  every  Christian  is  a  Unitarian.  None 
of  the  early  disciples  would  have  hesitated  to 
repeat  the  creed  of  Israel,  “  God  is  one.”  And 
the  Nicene  Creed  is  quite  as  explicit,  “  I  believe  in 
one  God  .  .  .  and  in  his  son  Jesus  Christ,  our 
Lord.”  “  But,”  most  churchmen  will  say,  “  we 
believe  also  in  the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ.”  The 
difference  between  the  really  Unitarian  religions, 
Judaism  and  Islam,  and  Christianity,  lies  in  this, 
that  the  latter,  in  addition  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
divine  unity,  preaches  also  the  doctrine  of  the 
Incarnation.  That  is  precisely  the  doctrine  which 
I  have  ventured  to  try  in  these  pages  to  place  on  a 
reasonable  and  defensible  basis. 

To  me  the  whole  question  of  Christology 
presents  itself  partly  as  one  of  fact  and  experience, 
and  partly  as  one  of  theory  or  the  explanation  of 
fact.  The  facts  are  three  :  (I)  the  life  and  person¬ 
ality  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  is  a  historic  question, 
and  can  only  be  approached  by  historic  methods ; 
(2)  the  growth  and  inspiration  of  the  early 
Church,  which  also  we  have  to  study  in  historic 
documents ;  (3)  the  present  relation  of  the  Spirit 
of  Christ  to  Christians,  which  is  a  matter  of 
observation  and  experience ; — (3)  is  the  most  im¬ 
portant,  and  must  needs  affect  the  study  of  the 
other  two,  for  history  apart  from  experience  and 


196  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 

the  beliefs  based  on  it  is  a  mere  eolourless 
abstraetion. 

How  the  facts  of  Christian  experience  may  be 
explained  so  as  to  produce  a  reasonable  Christology 
is  a  less  important  matter.  Less  important,  but 
by  no  means  unimportant,  but  important  rather 
from  the  point  of  view  of  intellect  than  from  that 
of  practical  life.  The  course  of  speculation  on  the 
subject  I  have,  in  the  merest  outline,  sketched ; 
and  have  suggested  an  explanation  of  my  own, 
which  seems  to  me  suited  to  our  intellectual 
environment.  But  the  intellectual  environment 
of  various  men  is  various  ;  and  I  have  no  doubt 
that  my  explanation  will  only  appeal  to  those 
more  or  less  like-minded  with  myself.  I  have 
no  pretension  to  set  up  an  explanation  objective 
or  final ;  but  only  one  relatively  satisfactory. 
Nor,  in  fact,  can  an  absolute  doctrine  on  the 
subject  be  expressed  in  human  words,  since,  as 
Bacon  pointed  out  long  ago,  words  cannot 
match  the  subtlety  of  things. 

A  formula  enclosed  in  words  and  imposed  by 
authority  may,  when  it  was  settled,  have  been 
of  great  value  in  checking  aberrations  and  pre¬ 
venting  Christian  ideas  from  being  dissipated. 
But  in  time  such  formulae  are  apt  to  become  in 
part  dead  branches  of  the  tree  of  knowledge.  On 
the  other  hand,  a  flow  of  inspiration,  an  experience 
repeated  in  the  great  minds  of  successive  genera¬ 
tions,  is  like  a  branch  which  is  full  of  sap,  and  is 


THE  ETERNAL  CHRIST 


197 


always,  as  the  seasons  recur,  putting  forth  fresh 
leaves  and  flowers. 

It  may  be  said,  if  such  is  the  case,  it  were 
better  to  have  no  creeds  at  all.  But  this  view 
overlooks  some  important  considerations.  If  the 
Church  repeated  no  creeds,  she  might  lose  sight 
of  important  questions  in  regard  to  her  Founder, 
might  suffer  from  want  of  continuity,  might 
leave  to  individuals,  many  of  whom  would  be 
uneducated  and  many  perverted,  the  task  of 
forming  creeds  on  their  own  account.  This 
would  end  in  anarchy  and  general  scepticism. 
A  creed,  even  if  it  is  imperfect,  even  if  some 
clauses  of  it  are  quite  out  of  date,  may  serve  a 
very  useful  purpose  by  giving  each  generation 
something  to  start  from,  some  venerable  historic 
formula,  of  which  Christians  will  accept  all  they 
can.  It  will  be  a  curb  on  the  licence  of  specula¬ 
tion,  and  hold  it  within  bounds. 

What  is  essential  is  that  the  creed  should  not 
be  regarded  as  infallible,  or  as  imposed  by  an 
authority  which  will  not  allow  it  to  be  discussed, 
but  as  a  historic  document,  which  represents  and 
partakes  of  the  inspiration  of  a  great  age,  but 
which  in  every  successive  age  requires  fresh 
comment  and  interpretation.  In  a  word,  we  may 
regard  its  authority  in  the  same  light  in  which  we 
have  come  to  regard  the  authority  of  Scripture. 
The  great  majority  of  English  Christians  regard 
the  Bible  as  inspired,  and  as  an  invaluable  guide 


198  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


of  life  ;  but  few  regard  it  as  infallible,  or  put 
it  as  a  whole  on  a  pedestal  beyond  the  reach  of 
criticism.  It  is  thus  that,  until  the  Church  has 
so  far  attained  to  unity  that  she  can  venture 
to  put  forth  a  new  creed,  we  may  well  use  the 
formulae  of  Nicaea  and  Chalcedon.  The  Church 
of  England  does  not  put  the  creeds  on  a  lower 
level  than  Scripture,  but  bases  their  claim  entirely 
on  their  conformity  to  Scripture.  Even  the 
Roman  Church,  as  I  understand,  does  not  at  all 
exalt  the  authority  of  the  creeds  above  that  of 
Scripture. 


CHAPTER  IX 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

The  great  doctrines  of  Christianity  have  in  the 
past  often  been  so  much  involved  with  Greek 
metaphysics  that  they  have  taken  unreal  and 
arbitrary  forms,  so  completely  dependent  on  the 
accepted  philosophy  of  the  age  that  we  now  find 
it  difficult  to  assign  any  satisfactory  meaning 
to  them.  The  so-called  Athanasian  Creed,  for 
example,  is  a  mere  piling  up  of  contradictories 
which  can  convey  to  us  little  meaning,  and  it  has 
become  a  very  unsatisfactory  subject  of  study, 
save  from  a  purely  historic  point  of  view.  But 
these  doctrines  often  have  an  ethical  side,  a 
bearing  on  the  practical  life  of  the  Church  which 
has  endeared  them  to  the  Christian  spirit.  And 
in  that  case  it  is  nearly  always  possible,  from  the 
modern  and  scientific  point  of  view,  to  find  for 
them  some  justification,  to  discover  the  facts  of 
human  nature,  and  of  the  spiritual  world  which 
constituted  their  practical  value.  They  cannot 
always  by  any  means  be  taken  as  an  expression 
of  eternal  and  objective  truth  ;  but  they  can  be 
shown  to  have  at  least  true  aspects. 

I  propose  to  consider  in  this  light  in  the  present 

199 


200  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


chapter  the  doctrine  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  as  in  the 
last  chapter  the  doctrine  of  the  Eternal  Christ. 
As  I  have  maintained  in  the  last  chapter,  in 
the  early  Church  these  two  doctrines  were 
alternative,  or  perhaps  mutually  complementary, 
attempts  to  explain  the  same  phenomenon,  the 
sudden  flooding  of  the  world,  at  the  beginning  of 
our  era,  with  a  new  light  from  above.  The  two 
doctrines  appealed  each  to  a  somewhat  different 
kind  of  mind  and  spirit.  And  in  our  days  also 
the  two  doctrines  are  in  a  great  degree  alternative  : 
it  is  not  easy  to  imagine  a  spiritual  consciousness 
in  which  they  both  find  a  full  place.  Either  may 
be  a  divine  light  to  lead  to  salvation. 

But  there  is  from  the  historic  and  philosophic 
point  of  view,  if  not  from  the  side  of  practice  and 
conduct,  a  decided  difference  between  the  two 
views.  The  doctrine  of  the  Eternal  Christ  could 
only  have  arisen  after  the  human  life  of  the 
Saviour  had  passed,  and  belonged  exclusively 
to  the  Christian  society.  The  doctrine  of  the 
Divine  Spirit  was  long  before  that  time  accepted 
by  the  Jewish  people.  It  grew  with  the  spiritual 
growth  of  the  people.  And  it  was  certainly 
accepted  by  the  Saviour  himself,  and  is  repeatedly 
mentioned  in  the  Synoptic  Gospels. 

I  should  mention,  but  I  need  hardly  more  than 
mention,  the  two  occasions  on  which  in  the  New 
Testament  the  Holy  Spirit  is  spoken  of  as 
appearing  in  visible  form.  When  Jesus  was 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 


201 


baptised  by  John  the  Baptist  it  is  stated  in  Mark 
and  Matthew  that  he  saw  the  Spirit  in  the  form 
of  a  dove  deseending  upon  him.  Luke  charaeter- 
istically  omits  the  words  which  suggests  a  mere 
vision,  and  writes,  “  The  Holy  Ghost  descended 
in  a  bodily  form,  as  a  dove,  upon  him.”  The 
Fourth  Evangelist  transfers  the  vision  to  John, 
and  adds  that  the  Spirit  abode  upon  Jesus.  We 
have  evidently  here  the  germ  of  the  view  adopted 
by  some  parties  in  the  Chureh,  that  the  inearna- 
tion  began,  not  before  the  birth  of  Jesus,  but  at 
his  baptism,  a  view  which  developed  into  what 
was  called  the  Adoptionist  Christology. 

On  the  day  of  Pentecost,  when  the  Apostles  were 
gathered  together,  there  was  a  sound  as  of  a 
mighty  wind,  and  cloven  tongues  of  fire  settled 
upon  eaeh  of  them.  It  would  be  a  vain  task  to 
try  to  ascertain  what  particular  facts  or  appear¬ 
ances  gave  birth  to  these  tales.  And  it  is  quite 
unnecessary  to  do  so,  since  throughout  the  Gospels 
the  Holy  Spirit  is  spoken  of,  not  as  a  separate 
being,  but  as  a  divine  impulse  or  influenee  which 
dwelt  first  in  the  Master  and  later  in  the  disciples. 

In  the  Gospel  of  Luke  ^  we  read,  “If  ye  then, 
being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  unto  your 
children  :  how  much  more  shall  your  Heavenly 
Father  give  the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask  him.” 

In  the  parallel  passage  in  Matthew  the  phrase 
ends  somewhat  differently,  “  How  much  more 

^  xi.  13. 


202  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


shall  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  give  good 
things  to  them  that  ask  him.”  It  is  needless  to 
enquire  which  of  these  phrases  gives  us  the  very 
words  of  our  Lord  ;  or  whether,  as  seems  very 
probable,  both  were  used  by  him  on  different 
occasions ;  for  the  words  in  Luke  undoubtedly  be¬ 
long  to  the  very  essence  of  the  earliest  Christianity. 
That  God  is  accessible  to  man,  and  that  the  Spirit 
of  God  speaks  and  acts  in  and  through  man,  is 
one  of  those  primary  teachings  without  which  the 
doctrine  of  Christ  would  lose  all  meaning,  and 
human  life  all  divine  consecration. 

Among  the  disciples,  shortly  after  their  Lord 
had  gone  up,  the  term  Holy  Spirit  acquired  a 
somewhat  more  definite  meaning,  being  used  to 
indicate  the  divine  inspiration  which  belonged 
specially  to  the  members  of  the  society,  which 
guided  their  councils,  which  accompanied  their 
missionary  journeys  from  city  to  city,  giving 
them  power  of  speech  and  a  faculty  to  cure 
diseases  and  expel  evil  spirits.  But  the  Divine 
Spirit  did  not  even  then  in  their  belief  begin  his 
working  in  the  world  after  the  Master  had 
departed.  In  old  time  the  Spirit  had  spoken 
through  the  Prophets  and  guided  the  rulers  of 
Israel,  only  entering  on  a  clearer  and  stronger 
revelation  of  the  things  of  God  when  God  had 
sent  his  Son  unto  the  world  to  teach  and  to 
redeem  it. 

I  have  to  speak  in  the  first  instance  of  the 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 


203 


imparting  of  the  Divine  Spirit  in  relation  to 
individuals  ;  later  I  will  say  something  of  it  in 
relation  to  the  Christian  Church.  We  may  all 
allow  that  in  the  assembly  or  communion  of 
Christians  the  Spirit  will  be  more  clearly  mani¬ 
fested  than  to  individuals.  Yet  it  is  as  individuals, 
and  as  individuals  only,  that  men  can  feel  in 
their  hearts  the  stress  of  divine  inspiration,  and 
through  individuals  it  must  pass  to  the  society. 

St  James,  the  most  purely  Jewish  of  all  the 
writers  of  the  New  Testament,  writes  :  ‘‘  Every 
good  gift,  and  every  perfect  gift,  is  from  above, 
and  comes  down  from  the  Father  of  lights.”  And 
no  one  can  be  familiar  with  the  Jewish  Scriptures 
without  knowing  that  this  quite  accords  with 
their  teaching.  In  the  beginning,  when  earth 
was  a  chaos,  the  Spirit  of  God  moved  on  the  face 
of  the  waters,  setting  in  motion  those  vital  forces 
which  brought  into  existence  the  beautiful  visible 
world.  This  naturally  reminds  us  of  the  almost 
identical  saying  of  the  Greek  Anaxagoras,  that 
it  was  reason  or  purpose  which  brought  the 
orderly  world  out  of  chaos.  In  the  earlier  books 
of  the  Bible  we  read  that  it  was  the  Spirit  of 
God  which  gave  Bezalel,  the  son  of  Uri,  wisdom 
and  skill  to  devise  cunning  works  in  gold  and  silver, 
and  in  the  cutting  of  wood,  and  in  all  manner  of 
workmanship :  that  it  was  the  Spirit  of  God 
which  gave  Samson  a  strength  which  was  more 
than  human  :  that  it  was  the  Spirit  of  God 


204  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


which  gave  courage  and  military  skill  to  Joshua, 
the  son  of  Nun,  that  he  might  vanquish  the 
peoples  of  Canaan.  We  are  at  a  higher  and  less 
primitive  level  when  we  read  how  God  gave  to 
Solomon  the  spirit  of  wisdom,  so  that  he  excelled 
all  who  preceded  and  all  who  came  after  him. 
But  a  still  loftier  tone  is  to  be  found  in  some  of 
the  Psalms,  as  when  the  poet  writes  :  ‘‘  Cast  me 
not  away  from  thy  presence,  and  take  not  thy 
Holy  Spirit  from  me.”  And  the  consummation 
is  reached  in  a  passage  of  Isaiah,  The  Spirit  of 
the  Lord  God  is  upon  me,  because  the  Lord  hath 
anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings  unto  the 
meek,  to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives,  and 
the  opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound.” 
Every  one  will  remember  how  this  proclamation 
was  taken  for  a  text  by  our  Lord,  when  he  began 
to  proclaim  his  mission  :  it  is  a  glorious  bond  to 
bind  together  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament, 
and  probably  every  great  reformer  and  preacher 
in  the  whole  history  of  Christianity  has  felt  that 
he  might  venture  to  think  that  in  a  far  less  degree, 
yet  in  a  real  sense,  he  could  apply  the  sacred 
words  to  his  own  mission. 

Thus  there  is,  beginning  with  the  documents  of 
the  Jewish  Scriptures,  passing  on  into  Christianity, 
and  continued  in  the  history  of  the  Christian 
Church,  what  one  may  venture  to  call  a  progres¬ 
sive  or  evolutional  doctrine  of  the  Divine  Spirit, 
and  of  the  working  of  the  Spirit  among  men. 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 


205 


In  the  life  of  Charles  Darwin  there  is  a  passage 
interesting  in  this  connection.  He  has  recorded 
that  when  he  was  a  boy  he  was  a  swift  runner, 
and  at  the  time  he  attributed  this  swiftness  of 
foot  to  the  direct  help  of  God.  In  later  life  this 
seemed  to  him  fanciful ;  and  so  no  doubt  it 
would  appear  to  most  people.  Nevertheless, 
there  is  a  sense  in  which  his  boyish  faith  was 
truer  to  fact  and  experience  than  his  later 
scepticism.  If  every  good  gift  is  from  above, 
suppleness  in  the  limbs  may  be  helped  by  an 
inner  motion  of  the  Spirit.  We  do  not  at  all 
know  the  limits  of  the  working  of  what  is  within 
upon  the  bodily  powers.  It  was  natural  that 
when  his  life  was  wholly  given  to  the  investigation 
of  the  orderly  sequences  of  nature,  Darwin 
should  have  become  obtuse  to  the  powers  of  the 
Spirit.  Another  confession  of  his  puts  this  in  a 
clear  light.  He  says  that  in  later  life  he  lost  the 
power  of  appreciating  poetry,  so  that  even  the 
plays  of  Shakespeare  did  not  appeal  to  him. 
That  also  is  a  not  unnatural  tendency  in  one 
whom  we  may  call  a  fanatic  of  science.  But  in 
this  case  fewer  people  would  think  his  change  of 
nature  one  for  the  better,  for  nearly  all  of  us 
regard  the  appreciation  of  poetry  not  as  a  limita¬ 
tion  but  as  an  extension  of  life.  Those  who  do  a 
great  work  in  the  world  often  in  the  course  of 
their  strenuous  career  become  stunted  on  some 
sides  of  their  nature,  suffer  from  some  kind  of 


206  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


intellectual  or  moral  atrophy.  So,  without  in  the 
least  blaming  Darwin,  we  may  well  hold  that  his 
boyish  belief  in  divine  aid  was  anything  but  a 
mere  delusion. 

Alike  in  the  history  of  the  Church,  and  in  recent 
writings,  there  may  be  seen  two  different  con¬ 
ceptions  of  the  direct  influence  of  the  Divine 
Spirit  on  men.  According  to  one  view  it  is 
beneath  consciousness,  in  the  unconscious  strata 
of  our  being,  that  God  especially  works.  This  one 
may  call  the  mystic  view.  It  holds  that  only 
as  a  man  throws  aside  personality,  desire,  purpose, 
and  lays  his  spirit  passively  bare  to  the  higher 
impulses  which  come  from  above,  only  then  will 
the  Divine  Spirit  use  him  as  an  instrument,  and 
communicate  to  him  the  deep  things  of  God. 
This  is  expressed  in  innumerable  passages  of  such 
works  as  the  Imitatio  Christi  and  the  Theologia 
Germanica. 

And  this  view  is  true,  and  based  on  the  ex¬ 
perience  of  many.  But  it  is  only  one  side  of  the 
truth,  and  the  other  side  is  also  very  important. 
The  unconscious  side  of  man  is  open  not  only 
to  Divine  influences  and  inspirations,  but  also 
to  sinister  and  evil  influences  of  a  spiritual 
character.  Anyone  who  reads  the  lives  of  the 
Saints  will  see  how  constantly  they  have  had  to 
strive  against  evil  suggestions  surging  up  from 
below.  Their  life  was  a  continual  struggle,  which 
sometimes  still  continued  when  in  the  opinion  of 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 


207 


the  world  sainthood  was  attained.  And  it  is 
obvious  to  anyone  who  reads  the  New  Testament, 
that  side  by  side  with  Divine  inspiration,  diabolic 
inspiration  besets  men’s  souls.  The  two  kinds  of 
inspiration  differ  as  heaven  from  hell ;  and  yet 
we  know  that  saints  have  been  hard  put  to  it 
sometimes  to  determine  whether  impulses  which 
came  into  their  spirits  were  from  above  or  from 
below.  And  when  Jesus  himself  was  questioned 
on  this  point  the  only  test  which  he  gave  was  a 
practical  one,  “  Do  men  gather  grapes  of  thorns, 
or  figs  of  thistles  ?  ”  ‘‘Ye  shall  know  them  by 
their  fruits.”  “  Beloved,”  writes  the  Fourth 
Evangelist,  “  believe  not  every  spirit,  but  try  the 
spirits  whether  they  are  of  God.” 

Thus,  though  no  one  who  believes  at  all  in 
Divine  inspiration  can  doubt  that  many  of  its 
greatest  expressions,  in  word  and  feeling  and 
deed,  work  through  the  unconscious,  yet  we  are 
compelled  to  treat  what  is  thus  originated  with 
extreme  care,  and  it  is  healthy  to  regard  it  even 
with  some  suspicion. 

The  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles,  that 
monument  of  the  good  sense  of  the  Church  in 
the  second  century,  gives  very  sane  directions  as 
to  the  way  in  which  teachers  who  claim  a  personal 
inspiration  should  be  tested.  “  Not  every  one,” 
it  says,  “  that  speaketh  in  the  spirit  is  a  prophet ; 
but  only,  if  he  have  the  behaviour  of  the  Lord. 
Whosoever  saith  in  the  spirit.  Give  me  money  or 


208  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


any  other  things,  ye  shall  not  hearken  to  him.” 
It  is  clear  that  even  thus  early  men  false  and 
covetous  had  claimed  to  be  prophets.  Nor  can 
we  set  them  aside  as  mere  pretenders  and  hypo¬ 
crites  :  probably  most  of  them  believed  in  their 
mission  ;  but  the  sources  of  it  in  the  unconscious 
levels  of  the  mind  were  contaminated  with  base 
elements,  desire  of  predominance  or  desire  of  gain. 

In  England  and  America  in  recent  times  we 
have  had  an  abundance  of  men  who  have  claimed 
inspiration,  such  as  the  notable  Mr  Harris,  who 
for  a  time  dominated  that  fine  spirit,  Lawrence 
Oliphant.  But  the  tests  of  the  Didache  would 
be  fatal  to  nearly  all  of  them.  Few  indeed  of 
them  show  the  behaviour  of  the  Lord.  And 
certainly,  especially  in  America,  they  ask  for 
money.  We  hear  of  great  fortunes  being  acquired 
by  the  founders  of  religious  societies.  And  in 
countries  where  the  acquisition  of  money  is  the 
supreme  test  of  success  it  is  not  unnatural  that 
the  leaders  who  succeed  in  heaping  it  up  should 
be  regarded  as  justified  by  that  fact.  But  the 
Didache  is  right  after  all.  As  Socrates  knew  well, 
and  as  most  high-minded  men  have  seen  ever 
since,  the  acceptance  of  a  reward  in  money  for 
spiritual  advice,  unless  it  be  in  the  way  of  a 
regular  salary  paid  by  some  organised  church,  at 
once  degrades  the  character  of  that  help.  Those 
who  require  fees  for  spiritual  service  have  their 
reward.  Very  different  was  the  procedure  of 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 


209 


St.  Paul,  who  lived  by  his  manual  work,  that 
he  might  give  the  rest  of  his  time  freely  to  the 
work  of  his  ministry.  In  this  feeling  Socrates 
and  he  are  at  one. 

The  majority  of  mankind,  and  I  would  venture 
to  say  the  vast  majority  of  women,  are  more 
under  the  influence  of  emotion  than  of  reason. 
And  emotion  arises  out  of,  and  primarily  belongs 
to,  the  unconscious  strata  of  our  being.  Thus  it 
is  usual,  when  communications  of  the  Divine 
Spirit  are  spoken  of,  to  regard  such  communica¬ 
tions  as  addressed  primarily  to  the  emotions. 
In  the  phenomena  of  conversion,  which  have 
specially  been  a  subject  of  study  by  modern 
psychology,  emotion  is  the  most  prominent 
feature.  The  sense  of  sin,  the  feeling  of  a 
need  of  deliverance,  the  scorn  of  one’s  own 
righteousness,  and  an  eager  desire  to  throw 
oneself  on  the  eternal  righteousness,  such 
emotions,  sometimes  leading  in  their  intensity 
to  fainting  and  even  to  collapse,  are  familiar 
to  those  who  have  studied  religious  revivals. 
Such  phenomena  have  accompanied  the  preach¬ 
ing  of  Christianity  from  the  earliest  times,  and 
the  first  Christians  were  accustomed,  as  are 
many  in  our  day,  to  see  in  these  paroxysms 
of  moral  crisis  the  direct  working  of  the  Spirit  of 
God.  The  abnormal  accompaniments  of  con¬ 
version,  the  speaking  in  unknown  tongues,  faith - 
healing,  and  the  like,  impressed  them,  as  they 


210  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


impressed  St  Luke,  because  they  were  striking 
and  unusual ;  and  it  is  a  natural  human  tendency 
to  realise  the  working  of  God  rather  in  the 
abnormal  than  in  the  normal.  But  that  working 
may  be  discerned  as  well  in  the  life  of  every  day 
as  in  the  times  of  spiritual  stress  ;  and  when  it 
acts  upon  the  conscious  strata  of  a  man,  it  acts 
upon  all  the  elements  which  compose  it,  touching 
the  part  of  it  which  is  best  into  a  new  and  higher 
life,  giving  wisdom  to  the  intelligence,  high  ideals 
to  the  artist,  an  untiring  energy  of  will  to  the 
practical  reformer.  It  takes  man,  as  he  is  and 
has  become,  and  raises  him  to  a  higher  power  and 
efficiency.  It  acts  less  upon  the  emotions  and 
the  imagination,  and  more  upon  the  intelligence 
and  the  practical  faculties. 

It  will  at  once  be  seen  that  the  view  of  inspira¬ 
tion  last  mentioned  is  also  in  accord  with  the  old 
Jewish  usage,  though  the  more  mystic  and  external 
kind  of  inspiration  is  perhaps  more  often  men¬ 
tioned  in  Jewish  scripture.  The  sons  of  the 
Prophets  often  showed  the  supernatural  influence 
in  ecstatic  utterances,  and  Saul  when  he  met 
them  caught  the  infection.  The  nature  of  the 
calling  is  made  clear  in  the  prophecy  of  Amos, 
the  herdsman  of  Tekoa  :  “I  was  no  prophet, 
neither  was  I  a  prophet’s  son ;  but  I  was  a 
herdman,  and  a  dresser  of  sycamore  trees  ;  and 
the  Lord  took  me  from  following  the  flock,  and 
the  Lord  said  unto  me,  Go,  prophecy  unto  my 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 


211 


people  Israel.”  So  Jeremiah  says,^  “If  I  say 
I  will  not  make  mention  of  him,  nor  speak  any 
more  in  his  name,  then  there  is  in  my  heart  as  it 
were  a  burning  fire  shut  up  in  my  bones  ;  and  I 
am  weary  with  forbearing,  and  eannot  eontain.” 
But  besides  this  emotional  and  eestatie  kind  of 
inspiration  we  find  also  one  whieh  has  closer 
relationship  to  wisdom  in  thought  and  good  sense 
in  action.  As  I  have  already  observed,  the  war¬ 
like  skill  of  a  Joshua  and  the  wisdom  of  a  Solomon 
are  in  the  Bible  regarded  as  quite  as  much  the 
fruits  of  divine  inspiration  as  the  more  passionate 
utterances  of  the  Prophets.  The  Jewish  nation 
was  regarded  as  the  subject  of  special  divine 
guidance,  and  the  qualities  in  its  leaders  and 
heroes  whieh  helped  it  towards  its  divinely 
appointed  goal  were  regarded  as  imparted  by 
the  Spirit  of  God.  This  fact  opens  to  us  fresh 
vistas,  as  to  which  more  presently. 

But  the  particular  kind  of  inspiration  on  which 
I  wish  specially  now  to  insist  is  the  divine  illumina¬ 
tion  of  the  intellect.  That  there  is  a  wisdom 
which  is  bestowed  from  above  is  dwelt  on  largely 
in  both  Psalms  and  Proverbs.  The  spirit  of  God 
and  the  wisdom  of  God  seem  to  some  of  the 
writers  to  be  the  same.  “  The  Lord,”  says  the 
author  of  Proverbs,^  “  giveth  wisdom  :  he  layeth 
up  sound  wisdom  for  the  upright.”  “  Thou  shalt 
make  me  to  know  wisdom,”  ^  writes  the  Psalmist. 

^  XX.  9.  ^  ii.  6,  7.  ®  Ps.  li.  6. 


212  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


“  If  any  man  lack  wisdom,”  writes  St  James, 
‘‘  let  him  ask  of  God.”  And  he  further  defines 
this  wisdom  :  ‘‘  The  wisdom  that  is  from  above 
is  first  pure,  then  peaeeable,  gentle,  easy  to  be 
intreated,  full  of  merey  and  good  fruits.” 

Wisdom  may  be  shown  either  in  the  eonduct  of 
life  or  in  an  eminently  true  and  sane  view  of 
realities.  As  regards  practical  conduct,  it  is 
notable  how  sane  and  wise  were  some  of  the 
mystie  saints  of  the  Middle  Ages,  sueh  as  Catharine 
and  Theresa.  In  the  interesting  life  of  Brother 
Lawrence  we  find  an  exquisitely  simple  aceount 
of  the  way  in  whieh,  being  naturally  one  of  the 
most  awkward  and  unpraetieal  of  men,  he  found 
a  way  to  do  the  duties  of  life  quite  well  by  a  con¬ 
stant  and  complete  reliance  on  prayer  and  on  the 
love  of  God.  When  a  man  or  a  woman  is  emptied 
alike  of  self-seeking  and  of  self-conseiousness,  the 
eyes  are  wonderfully  cleared  to  see  what  is  the 
right  thing  to  do. 

When  the  wisdom  is  theoretic  in  matters  of 
science  and  thought,  there  is  still  a  possibility  of 
aid  from  the  Divine  Spirit.  That  aid  does  not, 
of  course,  give  a  student  knowledge  of  matters 
whieh  he  has  not  studied,  or  place  an  unlearned 
man  on  the  level  of  a  learned  man.  It  does  not 
inform  us  in  matters  whieh  it  is  our  business  and 
duty  to  find  out  for  ourselves.  But  it  helps  in 
some  directions,  provided  we  are  ready  on  our 
part  to  work  with  it. 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 


213 


I  venture  to  suggest  that  the  discovery  of  the 
unconscious  element  in  life,  and  of  its  import¬ 
ance,  may  throw  a  new  light  not  only  on  the 
development  of  character  and  the  sway  of  the 
emotions,  but  even  on  the  intellectual  working  of 
the  student  and  the  search  for  truth  by  the  man 
of  science.  We  are  not,  even  in  intelligence,  so 
isolated  as  we  fancy  ourselves.  In  actual  re¬ 
search  and  discovery  a  great  part  is  played  by 
the  unconscious.  It  has  often  happened  to  those 
who  research  that  the  solutions  which  they  had 
vainly  sought  in  days  of  toil  have  suddenly,  in 
a  quiet  moment,  been  found  written  out,  so  to 
speak,  in  the  tablets  of  the  mind.  In  the  same 
way  it  has  often  happened  that  those  who  have 
long  sought  in  vain  to  decide  which  of  the  courses 
of  action  open  to  them  is  the  really  wise  and  good 
one,  have  suddenly  seen  clearly  what  is  the  only 
wise  and  right  course  to  pursue.  In  all  these 
cases  the  new  decision  comes  from  what  has 
taken  place  in  the  unconscious  levels  of  person¬ 
ality.  And  it  is  in  these  unconscious  levels  that 
spiritual  influence  most  usually  acts,  influence 
whose  course  we  cannot  trace  ;  but  when  the 
result  is  the  discovery  of  new  truth  or  the 
revelation  of  a  good  and  right  course  of  action, 
we  naturally  look  upon  such  an  influence  as 
coming  from  the  super-conscious,  as  proceeding, 
whether  mediately  or  immediately,  from  the 
Ruler  of  the  spiritual  world. 


214  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


There  is  an  intellectual  quality  which  is  most 
notable  in  the  votaries  of  science,  and  which  is 
parallel  to  idealism  in  the  poet  and  the  artist,  or 
to  high  goodness  in  the  social  worker.  This  is 
the  quality  called  by  Huxley  the  fanaticism  of 
veracity,  which  John  Stuart  Mill  exhibited  in  a 
high  degree.  It  is  not  always  appreciated, 
indeed  it  is  often  in  popular  estimation  regarded 
as  a  kind  of  egotism  :  yet  it  has  been  of  inestim¬ 
able  value  in  the  progress  of  knowledge. 

To  set  aside  a  favourite  theory  because  it  is 
found  to  be  in  conflict  with  fact  and  reality  may, 
to  a  man  who  leads  a  keenly  intellectual  life, 
need  as  much  self-denial  and  self-mastery  as  the 
giving  up  of  a  personal  pleasure  or  desire  when 
it  is  seen  to  conflict  with  the  general  good. 
To  allow  one’s  views  in  history  or  politics  to 
be  warped  by  unworthy  prejudice  or  by  self- 
interest  is  a  parallel  proceeding  to  allowing  one’s 
own  enjoyments  to  injure  either  one’s  neighbours 
or  society  in  general. 

St  Paul,  whose  strong  good  sense  is  almost  as 
noteworthy  as  his  spiritual  enthusiasm,  teaches 
clearly  that  the  intellect  is  as  much  subject  to 
divine  inspiration  as  the  emotions  and  heart. 
There  are,  he  says,  diversities  of  gifts,  but  the 
same  spirit ;  diversities  of  working,  but  the  same 
God.  To  one  Christian  is  given,  by  the  Spirit, 
the  power  to  work  healing  or  to  speak  with 
tongues.  But  these  more  ecstatic  revelations 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 


215 


St  Paul  puts  very  low  down  in  the  scale  of  attain¬ 
ments.  To  others,  he  says,  the  Spirit  gives  faith. 
But  higher  still  he  places  the  wisdom  and  the 
knowledge  imparted  by  the  Spirit ;  these  he 
speaks  of  as  the  crown  of  the  Christian  calling. ^ 
I  do  not,  of  course,  mean  that  in  this  passage 
St  Paul  arranges  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit  in  an 
exact  order  of  merit.  But  it  is  at  least  note¬ 
worthy  that  when  he  is  writing  of  these  spiritual 
gifts  the  first  that  comes  to  his  mind  is  wisdom. 
And  the  high  rank  which  he  assigns  to  wisdom 
is  no  mere  speculative  opinion.  In  his  life  and 
his  letters  nothing  is  more  conspicuous  than  the 
way  in  which  he  adapts  his  teaching  to  his 
environment,  allows  for  all  the  differences  in 
temperament  and  circumstances  of  his  converts, 
and  tries  to  make  the  enthusiasm  of  their  faith 
work  in  harness.  In  one  place  he  writes  :  “I 
will  pray  with  the  spirit,  and  I  will  pray  with 
the  understanding  also  ”  ;  and  still  more  strongly, 
“  In  the  church  I  had  rather  speak  five  words 
with  my  understanding,  that  I  might  instruct 
others  also,  than  ten  thousand  words  in  (an 
unknown)  tongue !  ”  Even  the  working  of 
miracles,  whether  by  himself  or  others,  he  places 
at  a  lower  level  than  the  gift  of  divine  wisdom. 

St  Paul  in  fact  accepts,  and  baptizes  into 
Christ,  the  doctrine  of  the  Old  Testament  in 
regard  to  the  working  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  And 

1  1  Cor.  xii.  8. 


216  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


the  Fourth  Evangelist,  when  he  speaks  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  Logos,  the  reason  or  purpose  of 
God,  likewise  transposes  the  Jewish  doctrine  into 
a  Christian  key  ;  but  he  thinks  less  of  the  Old 
Testament  than  of  the  Jewish  modification  of 
the  doctrines  of  later  Hellenism. 

It  was  a  splendid  tradition,  and  never  wholly 
abandoned  by  the  Church.  The  great  intellectual 
teachers  of  the  Church,  Clement  of  Alexandria, 
Augustine,  Jerome,  were  put  high  in  the  lists  of 
saints.  And  in  the  Middle  Ages,  St  Thomas 
Aquinas,  the  great  thinker,  who  was  in  his  time 
attacked  as  a  heretic,  but  who  lived  to  baptize 
Aristotle  into  Christ,  is  one  of  the  chief  of  the 
saints.  But  just  as  in  his  unconscious  part  man 
is  in  danger  of  being  misled  by  impulses  from 
below,  so  in  his  conscious  work  he  may  be  attacked 
by  baser  motives,  the  desire  to  please  particular 
people,  inordinate  love  of  paradox  and  novelty, 
indolence,  and  many  other  messengers  of  Satan 
which  lie  in  wait  to  mislead  the  investigator. 

Is  such  a  man  not  inspired,  in  spite  of  all 
shortcomings,  by  the  light  that  lighteth  every 
man  that  comes  into  the  world  ?  Would  that  we 
could  free  ourselves  from  cant,  and  see  things  as 
they  truly  are  in  their  right  proportions  ! 

I  must  not  be  misunderstood.  It  is  not  mere 
ability,  nor  mere  success  and  fame,  which  is  the 
basis  of  such  wisdom,  but  humbleness,  courage, 
patience,  a  keen  desire  that  the  ways  of  God  be 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 


217 


known,  and  the  happiness  of  man  furthered.  And 
these  qualities  may  exist  in  any  degree,  from  a 
merely  conventional  tendency  to  a  burning  en¬ 
thusiasm.  And  even  in  that  form  they  do  not 
usually  lead  a  man  to  objective  and  eternal  truth ; 
but  they  lead  him  to  a  high  degree  of  relative 
truth,  truth  good  for  the  time  and  country. 

I  think  that  there  is  no  subject  in  the  whole 
range  of  Christian  teaching  which  more  needs 
dwelling  on  than  the  relations  of  the  Divine 
Spirit  to  the  intellect.  The  tendency  of  religious 
movements  in  the  last  century,  Methodism,  the 
Salvation  Army,  Quakerism,  and  of  all  the 
religious  sects  which  spring  up  like  mushrooms 
in  England  and  America,  has  been  to  lay  undue 
stress  on  feeling  and  emotion.  They  have  taught 
that  the  sum  of  religion  lies  in  a  right  attitude  of 
the  heart  to  God,  that  purity  of  motive  makes  a 
good  man,  that  if  anyone  is  ready  to  do  the  will 
of  God,  he  will  not  find  much  difficulty  in  ascer¬ 
taining  what  that  will  is.  This  is  undoubtedly  an 
important  side  of  religion,  and  from  the  individual 
point  of  view  the  most  important  side.  The 
right  relation  of  the  will  to  God  leads  to  life  and 
peace.  But  on  the  social  side  of  religion  the 
intelligence  is  quite  as  important  as  the  will. 
Moved  by  religious  emotion,  often  by  a  strong 
feeling  of  love  and  broth^hood,  men  are  con¬ 
stantly,  through  want  of  thought  and  a  con¬ 
sideration  of  the  consequences  of  action,  led  into 


218  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


doing  what  is  disastrous  to  society.  They  dwell 
upon  certain  phrases  in  the  teaching  of  early 
Christianity,  and  pass  by  the  correctives  which, 
as  I  have  shown,  are  abundantly  to  be  found  in 
the  Bible.  God  does  not  love  fools  ;  and  it  is 
of  the  essence  of  folly  to  act  upon  mere  impulse 
without  carefully  considering  the  results  of  one’s 
action.  The  indulgence  of  impulses  of  com¬ 
passion  without  consideration  is  often  the  cause 
of  great  misery  :  the  momentary  alleviation  of 
distress  may  be  succeeded  by  far  greater  distress, 
not  to  speak  of  the  destruction  of  morale. 

In  a  primitive  state  of  society,  especially  in 
one  where  a  callous  selfishness  prevails,  the 
practice  of  kindness  and  charity  is  the  highest 
form  of  duty.  But  in  a  complicated,  and  in  many 
ways  degenerate,  polity  like  ours,  these  impulses 
need  to  be  kept  under  severe  control,  not  quenched, 
but  disciplined,  educated  by  the  careful  con¬ 
sideration  of  consequences,  as  ascertained  by 
careful  investigation.  Often  the  only  wise  course 
of  conduct  repels  one  by  its  seeming  harshness. 
In  such  cases  there  is  a  contest  between  good 
sense  and  conscience  on  the  one  side,  and  our 
feelings  of  love,  of  compassion,  of  humanity,  on 
the  other.  And  religion,  not  merely  popular 
religion,  but  the  highest  exponents  of  religion 
among  us,  usually  take  the  side  of  emotion  against 
wisdom.  We  do  not  sufficiently  realise  that 
wisdom,  the  divine  logos,  is  as  much  a  part  of  the 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 


219 


divine  being  as  love.  And  if,  probably  as  the 
result  of  painful  experiences,  we  determine  to  take 
the  side  of  the  head  rather  than  of  the  heart,  we 
feel  pained  and  unhappy.  It  is  a  sad  state  of 
things  brought  about  by  one-sided  views  of  our 
religious  teachers,  and  only  to  be  remedied  by  a 
change  in  their  outlook,  a  change  which  must 
come  sooner  or  later,  if  society  is  to  be  saved 
from  dissolution,  but  a  change  which  most  of  us 
will  feel  to  be  depressing  and  chilling.  It  will  be 
brought  about  by  progress  in  science,  both 
natural  and  human,  which  will  make  us  aware 
that  God  rules  by  law  ;  and  that  we  can  only 
live  in  the  world  which  he  has  made  by  conforming 
our  impulses  to  the  conditions  which  are  imposed 
upon  us  by  the  Divine  Will. 

However,  St  Paul  sometimes  speaks  in  another 
key,  and  depreciates  what  he  calls  “  the  wisdom 
of  the  world  ”  in  comparison  with  the  foolishness 
of  the  message  of  the  Gospel.  ‘‘  The  world  by 
wisdom,”  he  writes,  ‘‘  knew  not  God.”  One  sees 
his  meaning.  Used  as  he  was  to  the  discussions 
in  the  Greek  agoras  with  Stoics,  Epicureans,  and 
others,  he  grew  impatient  with  their  blindness  to 
some  of  the  spiritual  realities  to  which  he  was 
intensely  alive,  with  their  smug  conviction  that 
they  understood  all  about  good  and  evil,  and 
therefore  had  no  need  for  purification  by  the 
fire  of  religion.  St  Paul  was  convinced  that, 
as  he  had  a  purer  faith,  so  he  reached  to  a  really 


220  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


higher  phase  of  wisdom  than  that  of  Hellenistic 
philosophy.  As  a  Jew  he  would  scarcely  realise 
to  what  extent  the  Platonic  philosophy  was 
destined,  when  baptized  into  Christ,  to  enrich 
the  thought  of  the  Church. 

That  is  the  point  at  which  we  have  arrived. 
The  doctrine  of  the  Divine  Spirit  has  its  roots  in 
very  early  prehistoric  times.  It  was  placed  by 
the  Jewish  religion  on  a  far  higher  level.  But  it 
yet  needed  a  baptism  into  Christ  before  it  could 
become  what  it  did  become  to  the  early  Christian 
Church,  and  to  the  Christian  society  at  all  times. 
Schleiermacher  thought  that  he  could  substitute 
for  the  working  of  the  Spirit  in  the  Church  what 
he  calls  the  Gemeingeist,  the  corporate  feeling, 
of  that  Church.  But  the  point  was  that  the 
corporate  feeling  of  the  Church  was  permeated 
and  inspired  by  an  incoming  spiritual  power, 
arising  from  that  new  orientation  of  the  spiritual 
world  consequent  on  the  death  of  Christ,  and 
his  rising  again  in  the  experience  and  in  the 
hearts  of  Christians,  of  which  I  have  already 
spoken.  It  was  a  new  phase  or  aspect,  a  fuller 
revelation  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  to  which  they 
were  witnesses. 

That  there  should  have  been  at  a  definite 
period  in  the  history  of  the  world  such  a  new 
revelation  is  quite  in  accordance  with  what 
geology  and  history  alike  reveal  as  to  God’s  way 
of  dealing  with  the  world.  Geological  research 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 


221 


reveals  to  us  long  periods  of  little  and  gradual 
change,  when  existing  races  of  animals  and 
plants  slowly  developed  and  by  degrees  became 
better  accommodated  to  their  surroundings.  Then 
from  time  to  time  there  has  been  a  crisis  in  which 
there  has  been,  not  indeed  a  new  and  special 
creation,  nor  a  suspension  of  natural  law,  but  a 
marked  quickening  of  the  pace  of  evolution, 
following  probably  on  great  changes  of  environ¬ 
ment,  the  result  of  which  has  been  the  arising  of 
a  new  order.  So  it  has  been  in  the  vast  spaces 
which  preceded  history.  And  so  it  has  been, 
perhaps  in  a  somewhat  less  startling  degree,  at 
certain  crises  in  the  few  centuries  which  are  all 
about  which  history  can  tell  us  anything.  It  is 
as  if  an  iceberg  which  we  had  been  looking  at 
were  suddenly,  not  in  defiance  of  the  law  of 
gravity,  but  in  consequence  of  its  slow  working 
on  unseen  parts  of  the  mass  of  ice,  to  turn  over 
and  to  show  to  us  fresh  forms. 

It  was  no  wonder  that,  to  the  first  disciples, 
the  working  of  the  Divine  Spirit  in  their  midst 
seemed  something  quite  new  and  unprecedented, 
something  quite  peculiar  to  their  society  and 
hostile  to  the  world  about  them.  But  we,  looking 
from  a  greater  distance,  and  with  more  full 
historic  knowledge,  can  see  that  what  took  place 
was  a  development  on  new  lines  of  a  known 
power,  and  not  the  sudden  advent  of  a  power 
wholly  new.  Some,  indeed,  of  the  writers  of 


222  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


the  New  Testament  had  already  discerned  this  : 
the  writer  to  the  Hebrews  when  he  observes  that 
God  had  revealed  himself  by  the  Prophets  before 
he  revealed  himself  in  his  Son.  And  St  Paul 
at  times  seems  to  maintain  that  the  divine 
mission  of  the  Church  and  the  divine  education 
of  Israel  were  really  two  parts  of  the  same 
process.  That  the  inspiration  of  Plato  and  Zeno 
and  Aristotle  was  in  fact  another  phase  of  the 
process  we,  naturally,  could  not  expect  him  to  see. 

The  Fourth  Evangelist  well  expresses  the  new 
revelation  of  the  Spirit  when  he  writes  :  “  The 
Spirit  shall  take  of  mine,  and  shall  declare  it 
unto  you.”  Through  the  Spirit  the  main  prin¬ 
ciples  of  the  teaching  and  the  obedience  of  Jesus 
were  to  be  spread  abroad  in  the  world,  the 
realisation  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  the  Brother¬ 
hood  of  man,  the  dominance  in  the  world  of  the 
spiritual  over  the  material,  the  duty  of  bringing 
in  the  divine  kingdom.  These  great  principles, 
by  the  urgency  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  were  to  be 
revealed  to  the  minds  of  men,  impressed  upon 
their  hearts  and  made  into  their  rule  of  action. 
And  whether  we  say  that  these  results  came 
from  the  activity  of  the  Spirit  or  from  communion 
with  the  Eternal  Christ,  seems  to  me  not  indeed 
unimportant,  but  a  matter  decided  by  education 
and  temperament,  according  as  the  teaching  of 
the  Third  or  the  Fourth  Evangelist  most  fully 
impresses  us. 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 


223 


But  in  the  view  of  Schleiermacher  as  to  the 
Gemeingeist  there  is  at  all  events  thus  much  of 
truth  that,  however  much  the  gift  of  the  Spirit 
may  impress  individuals,  it  belongs  primarily  to 
the  community.  But  a  development  of  this 
point  must  be  reserved  to  a  later  chapter. 

The  difficult  question  of  personality  which  is 
fundamental  to  this  treatise  is  not  in  the  present 
connection  important.  For  few  Christians  think 
of  the  Divine  Spirit  as  personal.  In  the  Creeds 
we  read  of  him  as  a  third  personality,  besides  the 
Father  and  the  Son.  But  the  belief  in  the  case 
of  most  people  probably  stops  with  the  Creed. 
He  is  not  regarded,  as  by  many  Jesus  Christ  and 
the  Virgin  Mother  are  regarded,  as  individual,  but 
rather  as  an  aspect  or  influence  of  God.  And  as 
we  are  concerned  less  with  what  men  say  they 
believe,  or  think  they  believe,  than  with  what 
conduct  shows  them  to  believe,  we  need  not 
pursue  the  subject. 

The  dogma  of  the  Trinity  has  become  a  sort  of 
shibboleth  of  orthodoxy,  and  is  dragged  in,  in 
most  incongruous  places  in  our  services.  For 
example,  it  is  repeated  at  the  end  of  every  Psalm, 
apparently  as  an  attempt  to  convert  it  from 
Judaism  to  Christianity.  This  may  be  better 
than  attempts  to  amend  the  Psalms  themselves, 
but  it  is  incongruous.  The  fact  is,  that  the 
dogma  is  a  conventional  and  scholastic  summary 
of  doctrines  which  have  in  themselves  great 


224  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


value,  but  which  gain  little  from  being  tied  up 
in  a  bundle.  What  these  doctrines  may  in 
reason  be  said  to  be,  I  have  tried  to  set  forth. 
Others  would  no  doubt  set  them  forth  differently. 

We  can  hardly  do  better  than  come  back  to 
the  view  expressed  in  Jeremy  Taylor’s  Eirenicon, 
which  is  thus  summed  up  by  Professor  Dowden  :  ^ 
“We  may  amuse  ourselves  with  essences  and 
hypostasies  and  personalities,  distinctions  without 
difference,  priority  in  coequalities,  and  unity  -in 
pluralities,  and  may  be  none  the  wiser.  But  the 
good  man  who  feels  the  power  of  the  Father,  he 
to  whom  the  Son  is  become  wisdom,  righteousness, 
sanctification,  and  redemption,  he  in  whose  heart 
the  love  of  the  Spirit  of  God  is  spread  ;  he, 
though  he  understands  nothing  of  what  is  un¬ 
intelligible,  alone  understands  the  mystery  of 
the  Holy  Trinity.” 


^  Puritan  and  Anglican,  p.  213. 


CHAPTER  X 

PERSONAL  IMMORTALITY  AND  ETERNAL  LIFE 

I 

Primitive  Views 

The  ultimate  element  in  our  personality,  the 
“  spark  of  divine  fire,”  which  is  the  active 
element  in  our  being,  in  the  course  of  life  grows 
weary  with  contending  against  the  obstacles 
which  clog  it  on  all  sides  ;  or  else  some  sudden 
catastrophe  makes  the  body  no  longer  sub¬ 
servient  to  its  impulses.  Then  comes  the  great 
crisis  which  we  call  death. 

We  all  know  what  becomes  of  the  body  at 
death.  It  soon  becomes  corrupt,  and  loses  all 
form.  Finally,  it  is  resolved  into  elements  which 
may  enter  into  the  life  of  fresh  beings,  animal  or 
vegetable.  The  early  Christians  believed  in  the 
resurrection,  not  only  of  the  body,  but  of  the 
flesh,  that  is,  in  the  reconstitution  of  the  material 
frame.  But  of  course  this  notion  involves 
enormous  difficulties,  and  it  is  probably  extinct 
among  those  who  reflect.^  St  Paul’s  doctrine  of 

1  Mr  H.  D.  A.  Major’s  vigorous  work,  A  Resurrection  of 
Relics,  shows  clearly  how  completely  this  belief  has  died 
away  in  the  minds  of  religious  leaders. 

225 


15 


226  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


the  transformation  of  the  material  body  into  a 
spiritual  body  stands  on  a  very  different  footing, 
and  is  still  widely  accepted.  It  is  a  theory  in¬ 
tended  to  explain  the  survival  of  the  personality 
in  which  a  great  proportion  of  mankind  has 
believed  in  the  past  and  still  believes. 

On  this  problem  the  whole  question  of  per¬ 
sonal  immortality,  or  the  future  life  of  the  indi¬ 
vidual,  hinges.  I  am  speaking  at  present  not  of 
the  theories  of  philosophers,  but  of  the  beliefs  of 
mankind  in  general — anyone  who  hopes  to  live 
beyond  the  grave  thinks  precisely  of  his  person¬ 
ality  as  persisting,  with  its  memory,  its  loves 
and  hatreds,  its  formed  habits  of  thought  and 
action,  its  aspirations  and  energies.  Apart  from 
the  longing  for  a  continuation  of  the  personal 
life,  the  question  of  immortality  would  only 
interest  a  few  of  the  more  refined  and  intellectual. 
There  is  no  possibility  of  saving  the  body.  But 
every  man  as  far  back  in  history  as  we  can  trace 
mankind,  and  as  far  as  we  can  observe  in  all 
regions  of  the  world,  is  interested,  so  far  as  he 
rises  above  the  mere  daily  battle  for  existence, 
in  the  continued  existence  of  his  personality  after 
death.  Sometimes  he  merely  accepts,  without 
thinking,  the  views  on  the  subject  current  in  his 
circle  or  his  Church.  Sometimes  he  vigorously 
rejects  the  notion  of  a  future  life.  Sometimes 
he  takes  refuge  in  a  settled  agnosticism.  But 
the  interest  of  mankind  in  the  matter  is  really 


PRIMITIVE  VIEWS 


227 


SO  keen,  that  any  religious  teacher  who  professes 
to  have  new  light  on  the  matter  gains  an  immense 
and  an  eager  audience.  And  any  person  who 
professes  as  a  medium  to  have  intercourse  with 
the  souls  of  the  departed  is  besieged  by  inquirers, 
who  only  fall  away  when  they  are  convinced 
that  the  supposed  new  light  is  only  an  ignis 
fatuus. 

The  primitive  religions  of  the  world  have 
usually  maintained  that  personality  survives 
death.  But  the  survival  which  they  teach  is  by 
no  means  an  attractive  one ;  it  consists  of  a 
colourless  and  uninteresting  reflection  or  repe¬ 
tition  of  the  old  life.  The  hunter  still  hunts  ; 
the  agriculturalist  still  ploughs  his  fields  ;  the 
great  chiefs  still  exercise  lordship  in  the  realm  of 
shades  ;  but  it  is  all  done  in  an  unreal  fashion. 
No  one  would  prefer  such  an  existence  to  the 
vigorous  and  stirring  life  of  the  present.  It  is  a 
sort  of  pis  aller,  better  than  nothing.  Besides 
this,  however  inconsistently,  the  more  notable 
dead  were  identified  with  the  spirits  of  the  earth 
and  the  underworld,  who  frequently  intervened 
in  the  daily  events  of  life,  and  whom  it  was 
necessary  to  propitiate  with  sacrifice  and  rite. 
Communion  with  the  dead  became  the  task  or 
the  privilege  of  a  special  class  of  sorcerers  or 
medicine-men,  who  by  the  aid  of  such  office 
became  very  powerful  persons  in  the  tribe. 

The  primitive  notions  of  paganism  survived 


228  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


in  Europe  down  to  the  last  century  in  the  respect 
or  fear  which  the  country  people  have  felt  for 
wizard  or  witch,  who  were  in  touch  either  with 
the  dead  or  with  spirits,  and  who  were  powerful 
to  harm  or  on  occasion  to  help  those  with  whom 
they  had  contact.  And  no  sooner  had  these 
superstitions  died  down  than  their  place  was 
taken  by  other  mediators  or  mediums  who  made 
a  business  of  establishing  communication  with 
the  departed. 

The  phenomena  of  spiritism,  of  the  modern 
attempt,  through  the  agency  of  certain  sensi¬ 
tive  mediums,  to  come  into  contact  with  the 
departed,  have  revealed  to  us  many  hitherto 
unappreciated  facts  as  regards  both  matter  and 
mind.  Thought  transference,  and  the  direct 
influence,  apart  from  physical  communication, 
of  one  person  on  another  seems  to  be  proved 
by  an  enormous  induction.  And  it  cannot  be 
doubted,  further,  that  certain  sensitive  persons, 
when  in  a  state  of  trance,  have  access  to  mines 
of  knowledge  which  lie  outside  the  horizon  of 
their  conscious  lives.  There  is  in  these  experi¬ 
ences  much  which  is  very  hard  to  explain  ;  and 
the  explanation  of  which  may  greatly  affect  our 
outlook  on  the  universe. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  psychology  and  of 
religion,  I  think  that  the  beliefs  of  spiritists  have 
been  perverted  by  what  may  be  called  the 
monadic  theory  of  personality, — the  view  that  if 


PRIMITIVE  VIEWS 


229 


the  spirit  survives  death  it  will  survive  with  the 
features  of  the  present  life  unchanged,  with  the 
experiences  and  knowledge  of  the  present  life 
still  current.  The  influences,  whatever  they  be, 
which  come  into  contact  with,  and  express  them¬ 
selves  through,  the  mediums,  seem  above  all 
things  anxious  to  establish  their  identity  with 
beings  who  have  lived  on  the  earth  in  the  past. 
Any  information  they  give  as  to  the  world  beyond 
the  grave  is  of  the  most  superficial  and  flimsy 
description.  Whence  these  communications 
come  is  at  present  an  unsolved  problem.  But 
their  source,  whatever  it  be,  is  a  purely  mundane 
one. 

In  fact,  the  nature  of  the  communicators  in 
spiritist  circles  is  dominated  by  the  views  current 
in  those  circles.  Sometimes  they  are  person¬ 
alities  who  have  lived,  or  are  supposed  to  have 
lived,  on  earth ;  sometimes  they  are  tricky  and 
untrustworthy  earth-spirits ;  sometimes,  accord¬ 
ing  to  their  own  confession,  they  are  evil  spirits 
on  the  watch  to  deceive  and  destroy  those  who 
trust  in  them.  The  communications  themselves 
are  almost  never  of  really  ethical  character, 
tending  to  stimulate  the  souls  of  survivors  and 
help  them  in  the  battle  of  life.  They  have  no 
relation  to  the  course  of  conduct,  severe,  self- 
denying,  aspiring  :  but  rather  foster  a  flabby 
and  unreal  sentimentality.  In  essence  they  are 
of  the  same  class  as  the  communications  made  in 


230  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


past  days  by  witches  and  necromancers.  And 
one  remembers  that  on  such  communications 
through  history  war  has  been  made  by  every 
religion  worthy  of  the  name.  In  the  Jewish  code 
we  find  the  command,  “  Thou  shalt  not  suffer  a 
witch  to  live.”  Necromancy  and  magic  put  out 
all  their  force  against  the  rising  power  of  Christi¬ 
anity.  And  in  the  great  revival  of  Christianity 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  magic  and  witchery  arose 
like  dark  shadows  cast  by  the  light  of  the  sun. 

There  are  certain  things  which  are  made  elear, 
alike  by  the  history  of  the  belief  in  a  future  life 
and  the  experiences  of  modern  spiritualism. 
Personal  survival  of  death  is  not  easily  thought 
of  apart  from  continuance  of  consciousness  and 
memory.  A  conseiousness  which  has  forgotten 
its  past  is  not  intelligible.  And  consciousness 
with  memory  has  been  regarded  as  implying  a 
body  of  some  kind.  Early  Christianity  intensely 
believed  in  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  either 
in  cruder  or  in  more  refined  form.  St  Paul 
taught  the  transformation  of  the  earthly  body 
at  the  resurrection  into  a  spiritual  body,  though 
he  evades  the  question  what  the  spiritual  body 
will  be  like.  “  God  giveth  it  a  body  as  it  has 
pleased  him.”  The  modern  schools  believe  in 
something  scarcely  more  definite,  a  rarified  or 
astral  body,  to  be  in  reference  to  human  senses 
very  much  like  the  old  physical  body,  but  devoid 
of  its  coarser  properties,  and  holding  a  new 


PRIMITIVE  VIEWS 


231 


relation  to  space.  That  such  a  body  is  immortal, 
or  the  instrument  of  an  immortal  personality,  is 
not  necessarily  implied.  But  it  is  implied  that 
it  survives  bodily  death,  and  continues  beyond 
the  grave  many  functions  for  which  the  physical 
body  had  been  necessary, — memory,  thought, 
affection. 

For  this  notion  of  a  non-material  body,  re¬ 
ligion  in  India  usually  substitutes  the  notion  of 
metempsychosis,  or  the  transference  of  the  soul- 
into  another  body,  human  or  animal,  accom¬ 
panied  by  its  karma,  or  the  fruit  of  past  lives. 
Only  after  many  such  transferences  does  the  soul 
wear  out,  or  attain  to  that  neutral  and  uncon¬ 
scious  state  called  in  Buddhism,  nirvana.  The 
strong  point  of  this  teaching  is  that  it  suggests 
ways  in  which  all  good  or  evil  deeds  done  in  the 
body  may  be  rewarded  or  punished  by  the  very 
nature  of  the  transfer  into  happy  or  unhappy 
circumstances.  The  weak  point  of  it  is,  that  it 
cannot  in  any  satisfactory  way  establish  by 
evidence  the  continuity  of  consciousness  from 
one  embodiment  to  another.  The  tales  of  the 
sages,  who  have  known  in  what  bodily  form  they 
dwelt  before  they  attained  to  their  later  form, 
are  quite  unconvincing.  Therefore  the  teaching 
has  to  be  taken  on  faith,  a  faith  in  a  natural  law 
of  spirit  which  cannot  be  proved.  Yet  it  is 
held,  we  are  told,  quite  without  doubt,  by  the 
masses  of  the  people  in  such  countries  as  India. 


232  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


II 

Modern  Popular  Views 

The  experiences  of  the  late  war,  with  its 
slaughter  of  thousands  of  our  best  and  most 
energetic  young  men,  has  naturally  led  survivors 
to  think  much  of  the  state  of  the  departed.  In 
some  instances  it  seems  to  have  caused  a  rever¬ 
sion  to  very  primitive  notions  of  survival.  I 
have  heard  of  a  Bishop  speaking  as  a  pagan  might 
speak  of  the  playing-fields  of  heaven.  Many 
have  betaken  themselves  to  the  spiritist  mediums  ; 
and  some  may  have  found  real  satisfaction  in  that 
quarter.  The  members  of  various  religious  bodies 
have  sought  satisfaction  in  the  doctrines  in 
regard  to  the  future  life  current  in  those  bodies. 

But  the  mediaeval  teaching  as  to  heaven,  hell, 
and  purgatory  is  undoubtedly  among  us  in  a 
greatly  enfeebled  condition.  How  far  the  Roman 
Church  may  be  able  to  procure  in  the  mass 
of  her  members  a  real  belief  in  the  mediaeval 
doctrine,  I  cannot  venture  to  say.  But  outside 
the  Roman  communion  there  has  been  going  on 
for  a  long  time  a  continuous  weakening  in  that 
doctrine.  Belief  in  purgatory  disappeared  at 
the  Reformation,  because  with  the  doctrine  of 
purgatory  some  of  the  worst  abuses  of  the  domi¬ 
nant  Church  had  been  associated.  Among  the 
Protestants  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries  the  terrific  alternative  of  heaven  and 


MODERN  POPULAR  VIEWS 


233 


hell  stood  waiting  at  the  doors  of  the  future  life. 
So  long  as  they  were  really  believed  in,  one 
could  not  imagine  a  more  stringent  stimulus  to 
virtue  or  a  more  deterrent  hindrance  to  vice 
and  infidelity.  But  as  the  primitive  sternness 
of  Calvinism  died  down,  the  places  of  future 
reward  and  punishment  were  taken  less  seriously. 
Within  the  memory  of  some  of  us,  to  deny  the 
eternity  of  punishment  was  to  risk  persecution 
for  heresy.  In  an  interesting  recent  biography, 
that  of  Rev.  C.  Hargrove,  we  read  that  it  was 
his  growing  disbelief  in  this  tenet  which  made  him 
abandon  the  Church  of  Rome,  of  which  other¬ 
wise  he  was  a  contented  votary.  But  now  one 
scarcely  ever  hears,  in  sermons  or  books,  any 
advocacy  of  the  doctrine  of  eternal  punishment. 
Perhaps  in  places  the  doctrine  of  corrective  or 
temporary  punishment  is  substituted,  that  is  to 
say,  the  doctrine  of  purgatory  is  revived.  But 
it  must  be  evident  to  every  observer  that  the 
question  of  future  punishment  is  kept  as  far  as 
possible  out  of  sight.  When  the  life  beyond  the 
grave  is  spoken  of,  it  is  almost  always  spoken  of 
as  one  of  great  happiness.  In  a  word,  the  whole 
Christian  doctrine  of  the  future  life  has  been 
merged  in  groundless  imaginations,  and  flooded 
by  unreal  sentiment.  There  is  very  little  real 
belief  at  the  basis  of  it.  A  milk-and-water 
doctrine  that  at  death  all  except  the  desperately 
bad  are  carried  by  angels  to  heaven,  and  that  an 


234  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


all-loving  Deity  takes  no  aeconnt  of  their  good 
or  evil  deeds,  but  pardons  all  indiseriminately, 
is  so  utterly  at  variance  with  the  facts  of  the 
present  life,  and  with  all  the  principles  of  mor¬ 
ality,  that  it  can  have  no  real  value,  and  is 
quite  unfit  to  provide  armour  to  the  soul  in  times 
of  danger  and  stress. 

The  fact  is,  that  no  one  has  been  able  to  sketch 
any  kind  of  future  life  for  the  individual,  the 
prospect  of  which,  if  it  be  extended  to  infinity, 
will  attract  a  reasonable  man.  Our  ancestors 
spoke  of  the  heavenly  life  as  one  long  Sabbath, 
but  we,  who  find  that  a  too  quiet  Sunday  begins 
to  be  oppressive,  smile  at  the  phrase.  But  those 
who  have  tried  to  substitute  other  imaginations 
have  fared  no  better.  Young  men  and  women, 
in  the  ardour  of  first  love,  speak  of  that  love  as 
one  that  will  last  for  ever.  Very  often  it  cools 
or  evaporates  in  a  few  years  or  weeks.  Men  and 
women  who  have  experienced  the  happiness 
which  comes  from  works  of  active  benevolence, 
are  apt  to  think  that  an  eternity  of  such  work 
will  be  satisfactory.  But  no  kind  of  individual 
existence  known  to  us  would  last  very  long 
without  becoming  oppressive.  The  fable  of 
Tithonus,  who  acquired  immortality,  and  soon 
began  to  envy  those  who  were  mortal,  has  deep 
meaning.  People  who  are  growing  elderly  will 
easily  appreciate  it. 

I  am  acquainted  with  one  learned  and  very 


EARLIEST  CHRISTIAN  VIEWS 


235 


intellectual  man,  who  thinks  that  an  eternity 
may  well  be  spent  in  the  constant  acquisition  of 
fresh  knowledge,  in  diving  deeper  and  deeper  into 
the  laws  of  the  physical  world  and  the  history  of 
mankind.  Probably  many  exceptional  men  would 
mention  some  activity,  mental  or  practical,  of 
which  they  think  they  could  never  be  wearied. 
I  knew  a  young  poet  who  held  that  much  of  the 
happiness  of  the  future  life  would  come  from  the 
acting  of  the  plays  of  Shakespeare.  But  evidently 
such  fancies  as  these  are  nothing  but  illusion. 

The  flimsiness  of  the  popular  beliefs  as  to 
the  future  life,  combined  with  the  restless  and 
pleasure-loving  character  of  modern  society,  has 
tended  more  and  more  to  thrust  the  whole  ques¬ 
tion  of  the  survival  of  death  into  the  background. 
While  only  a  few  would  explicitly  deny  its  possi¬ 
bility,  the  many  think  of  it  as  little  as  they  can, 
except  perhaps  when  they  know  that  they  are  in¬ 
volved  with  a  mortal  disease  or  when  they  live  a  life 
of  constant  danger.  They  throw  themselves  with 
energy  into  the  current  of  the  present,  into  the 
relations  of  the  family,  into  duty  or  amusement, 
and  try  to  disregard  the  dark  shadow  which,  as 
they  are  dimly  aware,  looms  in  the  background. 

Ill 

Earliest  Christian  Views 

When  we  compare  the  teaching  of  the  New 
Testament  in  regard  to  the  future  life  with  that 


236  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


of  other  religions,  we  are  struck  with  its  indis¬ 
tinctness.  In  some  of  the  religions  of  the  Far 
East  we  find  most  detailed  accounts  of  the  realm 
beyond  the  grave,  with  its  pleasures  and  its 
tortures.  Much  of  this  imagery  seems  to  have 
filtered  through  into  the  beliefs  of  the  mystic 
sects  of  Greece  and  Rome.  The  Elysian  fields 
or  the  Islands  of  the  Blest  for  the  good,  the 
punishments  of  Tartarus  for  the  wicked,  were 
quite  familiar  to  the  imagination  of  the  ancient 
world.  They  are  enshrined  for  us  in  the  great 
poems  of  Homer  and  Virgil.  At  Delphi  they 
were  represented  to  the  eyes  of  pilgrims  in  a 
greatly  softened  and  refined  form  in  the  paint¬ 
ings  of  Polygnotus.  They  were  probably  set 
forth  in  dramatic  form  to  the  votaries  of  Demeter 
at  Eleusis.  The  Koran  contains  detailed  accounts 
of  the  torments  of  hell  reserved  for  the  wicked, 
the  covetous,  and  those  who  charge  the  Koran 
with  falsehood ;  while  sensuous  pictures  are 
drawn  of  the  delights  and  rewards  of  the  faithful, 
and  especially  of  those  who  die  in  battle  for  the 
faith. 

Of  all  this  there  is  nothing  in  the  earliest 
Christian  documents.  There  are  parables  such 
as  that  of  Dives  and  Lazarus  and  of  the  sheep 
and  the  goats  before  the  throne,  but  no  descrip¬ 
tions  of  the  future  life.  Even  St  Paul  con¬ 
cludes  his  argument  for  the  future  life  with  the 
words  :  “  When  this  corruptible  shall  have  put  on 


EARLIEST  CHRISTIAN  VIEWS 


237 


incorruption,  and  this  mortal  shall  have  put  on 
immortality,  then  shall  come  to  pass  the  saying 
that  is  written.  Death  is  swallowed  up  in  vic¬ 
tory.”  And  in  the  other  passage  in  regard  to 
the  future  life  in  1  Thessalonians  he  sums  up, 
‘‘  And  so  shall  we  ever  be  with  the  Lord.”  The 
Apocalypse,  of  course,  gives  us  more  detail,  but 
it  is  a  work  which  was  with  great  difficulty 
admitted  to  the  canon  of  Scripture,  and  does  not 
represent  the  earliest' teaching. 

When  a  leading  question  as  to  the  future  life 
was  put  to  Jesus,  ‘‘  Lord,  are  they  few  that  be 
saved  ?  ”  he  turned  it  aside  in  a  very  character¬ 
istic  way  in  a  practical  direction,  “  Strive  to 
enter  in  by  the  narrow  door.”  There  is,  how¬ 
ever,  in  the  Gospels  one  passage  of  considerable 
importance  on  the  matter. 

Modernists  cannot  cite  the  reported  sayings  of 
Jesus  as  quite  conclusive  in  matters  like  these. 
They  know  too  well  how  easily  the  words  of  the 
great  Master  might  be  corrupted  in  transmission 
or  distorted  by  events  in  the  history  of  the  early 
Church.  And  even  when  we  seem  to  reach 
actual  utterances  of  the  Saviour,  we  know  that 
they  were  not  uninfluenced  by  the  conditions 
and  the  mental  outlook  of  the  time.  It  would 
be  fatal  to  take  them  as  infallible,  or  as  finally 
settling  vexed  questions.  So  it  is  ;  and  no  wise 
man  would  wish  that  it  should  be  otherwise ; 
for  in  the  shadow  of  any  infallibility  man  becomes 


238  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


a  mere  parasite,  and  begins  at  once  to  degenerate. 
Yet  for  all  Christians  the  sayings  of  their  Master 
will  have  a  weight  far  greater  than  that  of  any 
utterance  of  any  disciple  of  his. 

There  is  a  saying  of  Jesus  in  regard  to  the 
future  life  which  has  the  strongest  objective 
claim  on  our  reverence.  For  it  occurs  in  closely 
similar  words  in  all  the  Synoptic  Gospels.  Few, 
indeed,  of  the  recorded  words  of  the  Master  have 
so  strong  a  claim  to  be  regarded  as  authentic. 
The  Sadducees  thought  that  they  had  contrived 
a  trap  for  Jesus,  discovered  a  puzzle  which  he 
could  not  solve,  in  their  question  as  to  the  woman 
who  had  had  seven  husbands.  ‘‘  In  the  resur¬ 
rection  whose  wife  shall  she  be  of  the  seven,  for 
they  all  had  her  to  wife  ?  ”  The  answer  is  clear 
and  final,  ‘‘  In  the  resurrection  they  neither 
marry,  nor  are  given  in  marriage,  but  are  as 
angels  in  heaven.  But  as  touching  the  resur¬ 
rection  of  the  dead,  have  ye  not  read  that  which 
was  spoken  unto  you  by  God,  saying,  I  am  the 
God  of  Abraham,  and  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the 
God  of  Jacob  ?  God  is  not  the  God  of  the 
dead,  but  of  the  living.”  There  is  here,  as  in 
many  of  the  sayings  of  Jesus,  something  belong¬ 
ing  to  the  time  and  the  state  of  mind  at  the  time, 
yet  its  fundamental  truth  is  but  emphasised  by 
modern  discovery. 

In  this  case  the  local  and  temporary  element  in 
the  teaching  of  our  Lord  may  be  easily  discerned. 


EARLIEST  CHRISTIAN  VIEWS 


239 


We  have  of  late  learned,  from  the  writings  of  great 
critics,  to  think  that  Jesus,  like  his  contempor¬ 
aries,  was  looking  for  an  actual  reign  of  God  on 
earth  in  the  near  future.  He  seems  to  have 
thought  that  great  national  convulsions  were 
near  at  hand,  that  nation  would  rise  against 
nation  and  kingdom  against  kingdom,  that  there 
were  coming  terrible  catastrophes,  out  of  which 
would  emerge  a  new  theocracy  and  a  reign  of  the 
saints  on  earth.  In  the  books  of  Daniel  and 
Enoch,  and  other  writings  of  the  Hellenistic  age, 
this  succession  of  events  was  portrayed  in  grand 
and  sublime  imagery  ;  and  the  anticipation  of  it 
had  become  a  part  of  the  mental  furniture  of 
every  pious  Israelite. 

It  was  also  generally  believed  that  pious 
Israelites  who  had  passed  away  would  arise  from 
the  grave  in  their  bodies  to  take  a  part  in  the 
future  kingdom.  Whether  Jesus  fully  shared 
this  belief,  or  how  far  he  accepted  it,  it  is  im¬ 
possible  to  be  sure.  What  is  clear  is  that  his 
teaching  as  to  the  future  life  does  not  in  any  way 
depend  upon  it.  Whether  we  think  of  the 
woman  who  had  seven  husbands  as  living  again 
in  a  spiritual  kingdom  on  earth,  or  in  a  realm 
above  the  skies,  does  not  really  affect  the  scope 
of  the  passage. 

“  They  marry  not,  nor  are  given  in  marriage.” 
It  is  a  stern  saying,  and  those  who  regard  the 
future  life  as  a  continuation  of  the  present,  with 


240  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 

its  domestic  relations  and  friendships  unchanged, 
must  take  account  of  it.  It  certainly  does  not 
agree  with  the  view  either  of  primitive  religion 
or  of  modern  popular  sentiment. 

The  last  sentence  of  the  saying  of  Jesus  has 
also  profound  meaning :  ‘‘  God  is  not  the  God  of 
the  dead,  but  of  the  living.”  Those  who  have 
passed  away  in  some  sense  yet  live  in  and  to  God. 
The  phrase  is  not  explained.  There  is  a  saying 
like  it  in  the  book  of  Wisdom,  “  The  souls  of 
the  righteous  are  in  the  hand  of  God.”  What 
the  words  mean  cannot  be  easily  set  forth  : 
yet  Christians  will  feel  that  they  have  a  deep 
significance. 


IV 

Philosophic  Views 

Certain  analogies  taken  from  the  life  of  nature 
have  been  brought  forward  as  indicating  a  per¬ 
sonal  immortality.  Indeed,  the  perpetual  hope¬ 
fulness  of  nature,  the  way  in  which  the  grain 
springs  from  the  seed  (an  analogy  pressed  by  St 
Paul),  the  revival  in  every  spring  of  the  plants 
which  had  died  down  to  their  roots,  are  full  of 
hopeful  suggestion.  Another  equally  striking 
analogy  has  been  often  put  forth.  Some  of  the 
ephemeral  insects,  such  as  dragon-flies,  spend  in 
their  larval  state  as  water-grubs  months  or  years 
at  the  bottom  of  a  pond.  Then  on  a  sunny  day 


PHILOSOPHIC  VIEWS 


241 


they  rise  to  the  surface  of  the  water,  their  skin 
splits,  and  there  emerges  a  beautiful  winged 
creature  which  has  hardly  any  likeness  to  the 
larva.  Does  not  this  give  us  a  hint  that  men 
also  may  rise  at  death  into  a  new  and  undreamed 
of  life  ?  Yes,  it  gives  us  a  hint,  but  no  more. 
For  the  May-fly,  for  all  its  beauty,  lives  but  a 
day  or  two,  and  spends  that  time  only  in  propa¬ 
gation  and  the  laying  of  eggs.  It  is  a  suggestion 
of  the  marvellous  originality  and  variety  in 
nature,  but  the  analogy  to  human  life  is  not 
close. 

It  is  certain,  though  it  is  not  always  recognised, 
that  in  our  everyday  life  we  have  foretastes  of 
death.  Every  time  we  give  up  our  consciousness 
at  the  sweet  approach  of  sleep,  our  life  comes  to 
an  end,  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  God,  and 
restored  to  us  after  an  interval.  And  those  who 
before  an  operation  submit  to  take  an  anaesthetic, 
in  a  more  deliberate  manner  give  up  life  in  the 
hope  of  eventually  receiving  it  back  in  fuller 
measure.  These  are  really  acts  of  faith.  We 
can  never  know  when  we  go  to  sleep  that  we 
shall  wake  again  ;  we  can  never  know  that  our 
heart  will  not  stop  under  the  anaesthetic.  Yet  we 
go  boldly  forward,  relying  on  our  experience  of 
the  past,  and  our  belief  in  the  reign  of  law  in  the 
universe.  It  is  a  small  venture  of  faith,  while 
death,  when — as  is  not  usual — it  is  consciously 
expected,  is  a  great  venture  of  faith. 


16 


242  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


I  may  venture  on  another  analogy.  What 
seems  a  blank  sheet  of  paper,  which  is  really 
inscribed  with  invisible  ink,  may,  on  being  heated, 
suddenly  become  an  important  and  purposeful 
document.  So  it  is  not  beyond  imagination  that 
the  stress  of  death  may  develop  into  activity 
faculties  which  before  were  latent.  But,  of  course, 
this  is  only  a  suggestion,  not  an  argument. 

The  argument  for  the  future  life  which  phil¬ 
osophers  have  most  frequently  cited  and  on  which 
they  have  specially  relied,  is  the  incomplete 
nature  of  the  world  of  experience,  when  regarded 
from  the  ethical  point  of  view.  It  is  true  that 
there  is  in  the  world  a  tendency  towards  the 
reward  of  virtue  and  the  punishment  of  vice  ; 
but  this  tendency  is  constantly  frustrated  by  the 
wickedness  of  men  or  by  what  seems  the  accident 
of  events.  In  few  lives  can  we  see  the  corre¬ 
spondence  between  goodness  and  happiness  at  all 
perfect  or  complete.  On  the  contrary,  the  good 
seem  constantly  to  be  the  sufferers,  and  the  hard 
and  consistent  self-seekers  to  be  at  least  out¬ 
wardly  successful  and  prosperous.  The  problem 
is  as  old  as  the  Book  of  Job  and  the  beginnings 
of  Greek  philosophy.  It  has  been  the  tendency 
of  all  enthusiastic  religion  to  assert  that  the 
imperfect  justice  visible  in  the  world  will  be 
corrected  in  a  future  life,  in  which  the  correspond¬ 
ence  between  goodness  and  happiness  will  be 
established  by  a  divine  judge.  The  happiness 


PHILOSOPHIC  VIEWS 


243 


and  the  misery  in  this  future  state  will  depend 
directly  upon  the  goodness  or  the  badness  of  the 
life  in  the  world. 

The  imagery  of  the  day  of  judgment  has  varied 
from  school  to  school  of  religion,  and  from  time 
to  time.  The  most  sublime  vision  of  it,  that  in 
the  25th  chapter  of  Matthew,  the  vision  of  the 
throne  of  glory,  and  of  the  separation  of  the 
sheep  from  the  goats,  is  on  the  face  of  it  a  parable, 
as  is  indeed  quite  obvious  from  the  substitution 
of  sheep  and  goats  for  human  beings.  Some  of 
that  imagery  tends  to  fade  as  times  go  on  ;  and 
the  vivid  and  cataclysmic  form  of  the  judgment 
may  be  seen  to  be  something  of  an  illusion. 
But  that  there  is  a  judgment  of  souls,  that  there 
are  before  every  soul  future  rewards  and  punish¬ 
ments,  has  been  the  persistent  belief  of  the 
Church,  and  not  of  Christians  only,  but  of  all 
who  take  life  seriously. 

This  argument  may  be  put  in  another  and  less 
crude  form.  The  life  in  the  flesh  may  well  be 
regarded  as  a  moral  training  whereby  the  soul, 
if  it  sets  itself  on  the  side  of  right,  is  educated  into 
nobleness  and  beauty.  And  this  moral  noble¬ 
ness  and  beauty  are  the  highest  and  most  worthy 
productions  which  come  into  our  experience.  If 
this  progress  towards  what  is  better  ceases 
suddenly  at  death,  what  a  waste  of  splendid 
powers,  what  a  want  of  continuity  in  the  scheme 
of  existence  !  Everywhere  in  the  world  we  see 


244  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


continuity,  evolution  ;  things  do  not  cease  to  be, 
but  go  on  existing  under  changed  conditions. 
But  in  this  case  there  would  be  a  hopeless  cata¬ 
clysm,  for  of  course  the  fact  that  the  elements  of 
the  body  continue  in  new  combinations  would 
not  at  all  constitute  continuity  in  the  higher  life. 
Nor  would  the  mere  survival  of  a  personality  in  the 
influence  which  it  exercises  on  children  or  friends, 
or  by  writings,  be  a  survival  of  the  soul  in  any 
personal  sense. 

Arguments  such  as  these  have  been  current  in 
all  the  great  schools  of  moral  philosophy  since 
the  time  of  Plato.  And  they  are  still  brought 
forward  by  some  of  the  best  of  our  philosophers. 
If  they  are  less  prominent  and  perhaps  less 
accounted  of  in  our  days,  the  reason  lies  rather 
in  the  hurry  and  rush  of  our  time,  which  often 
excludes  serious  thought  of  any  kind,  and  in  the 
materialism  which  naturally  results  from  the 
physical  conveniences  of  the  age,  than  in  any 
diminution  of  value  in  the  arguments  them¬ 
selves.  But  it  is  possible,  from  the  activist  or 
pragmatist  point  of  view,  which  is  accepted  in  the 
present  work,  to  bring  to  them  a  considerable 
reinforcement.  In  that  view  it  is  maintained 
that  speculative  thought  can  never  reach  results 
of  permanent  and  objective  validity,  that 
thought  is  not  the  real  basis  of  belief.  Belief 
comes  from  within,  from  the  motions  of  the 
unconscious  and  the  results  of  action.  Such 


PHILOSOPHIC  VIEWS 


245 


motions  give  birth  to  thought  on  the  one  side 
and  to  emotion  on  the  other  ;  and  the  will  rather 
than  the  intelligence  decides  to  follow  them  or  to 
reject  them.  It  is  from  an  inner  impulse  that 
men  believe  in  a  life  beyond  the  grave.  The 
scenery  of  that  life  is  coloured  by  the  intellectual 
conditions  of  the  time  ;  and  mythologists  in  a 
more  primitive  age,  and  philosophers  in  a  more 
self-conscious  age,  try  to  mould  schemes,  mytho- 
logic,  poetic,  or  intellectual,  which  will  accord 
with  the  inward  prompting, 
f  Thus  the  really  fundamental  question  in  regard 
to  the  belief  in  a  future  life  is  whether  the  urging 
which  gives  rise  to  that  belief  is  from  above  or 
from  below,  whether  it  is  in  accord  with  the  law 
of  our  being  and  with  the  will  of  God,  or  whether 
it  is  a  hindrance,  tending  to  delay  the  acceptance 
of  the  divine  ideas  and  to  degrade  the  life  of 
nations.  Here  the  only  test  is  that  given  by  the 
Saviour,  “  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them  ; 
If  any  man  is  ready  to  do  the  will  of  God,  he  shall 
know  of  the  teaching  whether  it  is  of  God.” 

Regarding  in  this  light  the  history  of  the  belief 
in  immortality  we  cannot  hesitate  to  find  that, 
mixed  as  it  has  been  in  all  ages  with  superstition 
and  baseness,  yet  on  the  whole  it  has  tended  in 
unbounded  measure  to  the  raising  of  the  level 
of  life.  In  a  belief  in  the  continued  existence  of 
the  ancestor  lie  the  roots  alike  of  religion  and  of 
social  progress.  We  may  see  this  especially  in 


246  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


the  records  of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  whose  feel¬ 
ing  of  responsibility  to  the  gods,  whose  convic¬ 
tion  of  a  judgment  to  come  in  the  world  of  shades, 
tended  very  greatly  to  moralise  the  people,  to 
moderate  the  cruelty  and  rapacity  of  the  rulers, 
and  to  furnish  to  the  ruled  a  consolation  amid 
their  heavy  toils.  In  Greece  the  Mysteries  of 
Eleusis  greatly  tended  to  moralise  the  life  at 
Athens,  as  we  see  from  the  testimony  of  poets 
and  philosophers.  And  when  what  was  best  in 
all  the  religions  of  the  ancient  world  was  merged 
in  Christianity,  no  feature  of  the  Christian  faith 
was  clearer  than  the  belief  in  a  future  life.  At 
the  first  it  was  in  a  measure  eclipsed  by  the  Jewish 
hope  of  a  terrestrial  millennium  ;  but  this  was 
but  the  scaffold  which  protected  the  rising  temple 
of  faith,  and  it  soon  fell  away. 

If  there  be  in  the  scheme  of  the  world  such 
things  as  moral  good  and  moral  evil,  clearly  the 
belief  in  immortality  must  be  on  the  side  of  the 
good.  Thousands  have  been  sustained  amid 
struggles  and  sufferings  undergone  for  the  good  of 
mankind  by  the  hope  of  a  better  and  heavenly  life. 
Thousands  have  been  scared  from  evil  which 
strongly  attracted  them  by  the  fear  of  future 
punishment.  The  reverse  has  not  happened. 
We  cannot  imagine  a  man  deliberately  setting 
himself  on  the  side  of  evil  because  he  hoped  for 
future  reward,  or  avoiding  the  life  of  virtue  for 
fear  of  being  hereafter  punished  for  pursuing  it. 


PHILOSOPHIC  VIEWS 


247 


Of  course,  there  may  be  mistakes  and  short¬ 
sightedness.  Men  may  think  that  courses  which 
prove  in  the  end  to  lead  to  evil  are  in  the  line  of 
the  divine  will,  or  that  actions  really  tending  to 
the  betterment  of  life  are  against  that  will.  But 
such  cases  are  the  exception  and  not  the  rule, 
unless  men’s  life  on  the  earth  is  dominated  by 
the  powers  of  evil. 

Modern  materialism,  no  doubt,  would  put  in  a 
plea  on  the  other  side.  It  would  say  that  the 
hope  of  immortality,  by  transferring  the  centre 
of  men’s  aspirations  from  the  present  to  the  future 
life,  has  done  harm,  and  inclined  men  to  put  up 
with  faulty  social  arrangements  and  physical 
discomfort  in  the  world.  It  would  declare  that 
the  belief  in  a  future  life  has  been  used  by  the 
classes  in  possession  of  power  and  wealth  to 
pacify  as  with  an  opiate  the  uneasy  stirring  of 
the  toilers. 

So  stands  the  controversy  in  our  days  :  Chris¬ 
tianity  and  the  Spirit  on  one  side,  on  the  other 
materialist  socialism,  culminating  in  the  Bol¬ 
shevism  of  the  ruling  clique  in  Russia.  The 
controversy  will  never  be  decided  by  logic  and 
reasoning,  but  will  have  to  be  fought  out,  not 
necessarily  with  arms,  but  by  the  impact  of 
spirit  against  spirit  and  society  against  society. 
The  weaknesses  and  crimes  of  the  Christians  in 
the  past  have  so  deeply  weighted  them  that  they 
will  not  win  without  a  severe  struggle  ;  but  that 


248  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


they  will  in  the  end  win  seems  to  be  proved,  not 
only  for  those  who  believe  in  a  righteous  God 
and  the  dominanee  of  spirit,  but  also  for  all  who 
take  to  heart  the  lessons  to  be  derived  from  the 
struggles  of  the  past. 

Considerations  like  those  above  eited,  though 
they  may  eonfirm  a  man’s  belief  in  the  survival 
of  personality,  are  not  the  basis  of  that  belief.  It 
is  at  bottom  based  on  a  feeling  of  value,  the  pro¬ 
found  eonvietion  that  though  each  of  us  is  like 
a  mote  in  the  sunbeam  compared  with  the  world 
of  spirit  and  the  ruler  of  it,  yet  each  of  us  has 
something  to  give  which  God  is  not  unwilling  to 
take,  and  something  to  keep  which  is  of  untold 
value.  The  personality,  the  soul,  is  not  to  be 
compared  with  material  things,  with  riches  or 
houses  or  even  the  physical  beauty  of  the  body  ; 
but  is  in  character  infinite.  That  infinite  value 
should  imply  infinite  duration  is  not  to  be  proved 
logically,  is  perhaps  illusive  ;  but  that  does  not 
prevent  the  rise  of  a  certainty  that  there  is  in 
each  of  us  that  which  is  a  treasure  of  great  value, 
which  will  not  accept  death  as  an  end,  but  has  a 
profound  disbelief  in  it. 

Most  thoughtful  people  have,  at  some  time  in 
their  lives,  usually  in  moments  of  crisis,  had  a 
consciousness  of  a  certain  duality.  They  have 
seen  the  course  of  their  life  flowing  on,  as  one 
sees  a  river  from  a  height ;  and  have  been  aware 
of  a  supreme  duty  in  regard  to  that  course. 


PHILOSOPHIC  VIEWS 


249 


They  have  felt  the  law  of  their  being  as  urging 
them  to  take  this  or  that  action,  not  as  a  ques¬ 
tion  of  expediency  or  inexpediency,  or  of  better 
and  worse,  but  as  necessary  to  the  preservation 
of  their  honour,  to  the  saving  of  their  souls.  No 
other  conviction  could  have  given  to  martyrs  the 
courage  to  face  torture  and  death.  For,  looked 
at  with  the  unimagining  eyes  of  the  superficial 
self,  death  must  be  the  worst  of  all  calamities. 
Yet,  as  Bacon  well  remarked,  a  man  has  in  him 
many  tendencies  stronger  in  fact  than  the  love 
of  life.  Love,  pride,  contempt,  even  desire  of 
fame,  will  make  a  man  meet  easily  and  in  con¬ 
fidence  the  prospect  of  wounds  and  of  death  ; 
and  even  feel  as  if  no  other  course  were  possible. 

But  the  mass  of  mankind  are  not  introspective  ; 
and  few,  probably,  are  consciously  aware  at 
moments  of  crisis  of  the  motives  which  really 
sway  them.  To  take  a  concrete  case.  In  1914, 
when  there  was  a  sudden  and  imperative  demand 
for  soldiers  for  the  Great  War,  tens  of  thousands 
of  volunteers  came  forward  at  once,  abandoning 
all  prospect  of  material  good,  leaving  wife  and 
child,  and  careers  to  which  they  had  been  strongly 
attached,  ready  to  face  any  peril  and  a  hundred 
forms  of  death.  Many  of  them,  when  rejected 
as  medically  unfit,  and  so  provided  with  an 
honourable  excuse  for  retirement,  could  not  rest, 
but  tried  again  and  again,  by  contrivance,  some¬ 
times  even  by  fraud,  to  gain  a  place  in  the  ranks 


250  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


of  fighters.  A  great  many  of  these  eager  volun¬ 
teers,  if  they  had  been  questioned  as  to  their 
motives,  would  have  given  a  very  inadequate 
reply.  ‘‘  I  could  not  rest,”  “  I  was  obliged  to 
do  my  bit,”  ‘‘I  could  not  hold  back  when  others 
came  forward.”  Such  explanations  as  these, 
rather  than  any  reasoned  view  of  duty  to  country 
or  eagerness  for  the  triumph  of  justice  in  the 
world,  would  commonly  be  forthcoming.  What 
they  would  really  mean,  would  be  that  there  was 
a  sub-conscious  urging  which  a  man  might  not 
fully  understand,  but  which  he  could  not  resist 
without  losing  all  self-respect. 

That  there  is  something  to  save,  and  that  its 
saving  is  of  unmeasured  importance,  is  thus  the 
real  belief,  not  only  of  the  reflective,  or  of 
professed  Christians,  but  of  every  one  who  takes 
life  seriously. 

But  when  we  come  to  the  more  definite  ques¬ 
tion,  What  is  the  exact  nature  of  that  in  us  which 
survives  death,  and  what  kind  of  life  lies  before 
it  ?  we  are  at  once  involved  in  the  greatest  diffi¬ 
culties.  We  have  already  seen  how  much  of 
unreason  and  illusion  there  is  in  the  minds  of 
most  men.  And  I  am  not  aware  that  the  best 
intelligences  have  in  this  matter  succeeded  much 
better  than  those  of  the  ordinary  type.  We  soon 
reach  the  limits  of  valid  human  thought,  and  the 
void  beyond  it  will  not  support  the  feet  of 
reasoning  or  the  wings  of  imagination. 


ETERNAL  LIFE 


251 


It  seems  to  me  that  a  really  religious  view  of 
the  future  life  is  that  of  those  who  think  of  it  as 
not  our  business,  but  in  the  hands  of  a  wise  and 
kind  Father,  whose  help  and  inspiration  in  the 
past  leads  us  to  be  confident  that  he  will  at  death 
give  us  what  is  best  for  us.  Whatever  the  future 
may  be,  it  will  not  be  beyond  divine  control 
and  disposing. 

When  we  turn  to  the  early  records  of  Chris¬ 
tianity,  we  find  in  St  Luke  two  notable  records 
of  the  acceptance  of  death.  The  last  words  of 
Jesus  were,  according  to  this  authority,  ‘‘  Father, 
into  thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit.”  Almost 
the  last  words  of  Stephen  were :  ‘‘  Lord  Jesus, 
receive  my  spirit.”  That,  surely,  is  the  typical 
attitude  of  the  Christian  in  the  presence  of  death. 
Any  definite  or  confident  attitude  in  such  presence 
must  be  based,  for  those  who  do  not  accept  an 
infallible  Church,  on  the  Christian  experience  of 
life. 

V 

Eternal  Life 

It  must  be  remembered  that  thus  far  I  have 
been  speaking  only  of  personal  immortality,  the 
survival  of  death  by  the  individual.  But  in 
some  parts  of  the  New  Testament,  and  especially 
in  the  Fourth  or  Spiritual  Gospel,  a  way  is  shown 
for  the  attainment  of  an  immortality  of  a  less 
personal  kind.  We  may  call  it  the  way  of 


252  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


Christian  mysticism.  Mysticism  is  a  characteristic 
of  the  higher  faith  in  all  religions,  and  was  widely 
accepted,  rather  by  the  few  than  the  many,  at 
the  time  of  the  rise  of  Christianity.  And  as 
Christianity  baptized  into  Christ,  and  raised  to  a 
nobler  level,  all  that  was  best  in  the  current 
religion  of  the  age,  it  naturally  also  trans¬ 
formed  the  existing  mysticism,  which  at  the 
time  had  many  forms,  some  higher  and  some 
lower. 

In  the  Fourth  Gospel  the  writer,  in  his  usual 
method,  places  in  contrast  the  ordinary  material¬ 
istic  view  of  the  people,  which  here  as  elsewhere 
he  calls  the  view  of  “  the  Jews,”  and  his  Master’s 
higher  teaching.^  “  If  a  man  keep  my  word,  he 
shall  never  see  death,”  says  Jesus.  The  Jews, 
as  in  the  parallel  cases,  take  the  words  in  the 
popular  sense :  ‘‘  Abraham  is  dead,”  they  reply, 
“  and  the  prophets.”  How  then,  they  imply, 
can  your  followers  escape  the  common  fate  ? 
Jesus  does  not  in  this  context  explain  the  nature 
of  the  death  and  the  life  which  he  means,  but  in 
other  passages  he  does  so  abundantly.  They 
have  no  relation  to  the  world  of  sense  and  of 
time,  but  only  to  the  world  of  spirit. 

Eternal  life,  as  spoken  of  in  the  Bible,  and 
especially  in  the  Fourth  Gospel,  is  very  different 
from  mere  continued  personal  existence.  It 
implies  the  rising  above  the  temporary,  the 

^  John  viii.  51. 


ETERNAL  LIFE 


253 


subordination  of  the  personality  to  a  higher  and 
purer  life.  Naturally  it  is  a  process  very  hard  to 
describe,  since  all  our  language  must  be  taken 
from  the  world  of  sense  and  of  mundane  activi¬ 
ties.  But  it  is  suggested  in  a  hundred  ways  by 
the  fine  spirits  who  have  already  in  the  present 
life  brought  themselves  into  accord  with  the  life 
of  the  spirit  which  is  eternal,  that  is,  which  escapes 
the  limits  of  space  and  time  and  reaches  below  the 
very  roots  of  personality. 

Some  men,  even  in  their  lifetime,  seem  to  have 
attained  to  the  almost  complete  merging  of  self 
in  the  higher  life.  Thus  St  Paul  says  that  the 
believer  is  dead,  and  his  life  hidden  with  Christ  in 
God :  that  he  himself  no  longer  lives,  but  Christ 
lives  in  him.  Such  language  is  echoed  by  a  long 
line  of  Christian  mystics.  In  another  place  St 
Paul  says,  ‘‘  If  ye  live  unto  the  flesh,  ye  shall  die ; 
but  if  ye  through  the  spirit  do  mortify  the  deeds 
of  the  flesh,  ye  shall  live.”  It  is  evident  that  the 
life  of  which  the  Apostle  speaks  is  very  different 
from  the  continued  existence  of  the  individual. 
He  states  a  great  law  of  the  higher  life,  that  the 
personality  which  is  dominated  by  the  desires  of 
the  body,  naturally  dies  with  the  body;  but  the 
personality  which  lives  in  the  spirit  need  not 
fear  the  death  of  the  body,  but  partakes  of  the 
deathlessness  of  the  spirit. 

The  Fourth  Evangelist  writes  :  “  This  is  eternal 
life,  that  they  may  know  thee  the  only  true  God, 


254  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 

and  Jesus  Christ  whom  thou  hast  sent.”  This 
seems  as  true  as  any  mere  verbal  statement  can 
be  in  regard  to  so  vast  and  undefinable  a  thing  as 
eternal  life.  But,  of  course,  the  word  know  is  not 
used  primarily  in  any  mere  intelleetual  sense. 
To  know  intelleetually  or  seientifieally  is  a  great 
matter,  but  to  build  life  upon  the  knowledge  is 
the  one  really  important  thing.  To  know  God 
is  to  realise  the  nature  of  spirit,  and  to  feel  our 
duty  to  promote  the  will  and  purpose  of  God  in 
creation.  To  know  Jesus  Christ  is  to  beeome 
part  of  the  earthly  body  of  Christ,  and  to  promote 
his  kingdom  on  earth.  To  realise  the  com¬ 
munion  of  saints  is  to  feel  that  we  work  not 
alone  but  as  part  of  a  great  realm  of  spirits, 
inearnate  and  otherwise,  with  whom  we  are  in 
some  kind  of  communion,  who  help  us  in  the 
spiritual  way,  and  are  with  us  reaching  forward 
towards  the  life  whieh  is  eternal. 

It  is  evident  that,  writing  on  so  great  a  theme 
as  Eternal  Life,  whieh  has  been  spoken  of  by  the 
greatest  Christians  in  all  ages,  all  that  I  can 
venture  to  do  is  to  define  the  relation  of  the 
belief  to  those  activist  principles  which  lie  at 
the  foundation  of  this  little  work.  I  must  not 
attempt  description,  but  confine  myself  to  the 
psychological  point  of  view. 

The  Creed  says  :  “I  look  for — or  hope  for — the 
life  of  the  world  to  come.”  But  whereas  the 
continuance  of  personality  after  death  can  never 


ETERNAL  LIFE 


255 


be  more  than  a  hope,  eternal  life  in  the  spirit 
may  be  a  matter  of  experience  and  certainty. 
In  fact,  it  has  been  such  to  a  multitude  of  men  in 
the  past.  In  so  far  as  in  thought  and  in  action 
we  aim  at  some  end  which  we  desire,  we  may 
succeed  or  we  may  fail,  but  in  any  case  we  attain 
only  a  gratification  which  belongs  to  the  person¬ 
ality,  and  which  is  liable  to  all  the  disillusions 
and  disappointments  which  belong  to  the  per¬ 
sonal  life.  But  in  so  far  as  we  merge  our  personal 
wishes  and  hopes  in  the  divine  will,  caring  only 
for  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom,  for  the  spread  of 
truth  and  goodness  and  beauty  in  the  world,  and 
beyond  the  world  in  the  realm  of  spirit,  in  so  far 
we  are  not  liable  to  disillusion.  It  is  true  that 
our  particular  plans  may  fail,  and  our  particular 
purposes  may  be  frustrated,  but  alike  the  general 
history  of  the  world  and  our  own  experience  of 
life,  show  that  in  the  long  run  there  is  a  general 
drift  towards  the  better.  If  we  believe  in  God 
at  all,  we  must  believe  that  the  will  of  God  will 
in  the  long  run  make  its  way.  And  by  uniting 
our  own  wills  with  that  of  God,  we  make  our 
final  happiness  certain.  Our  little  schemes  and 
systems  break  down  ;  but  we  are  quite  ready  to 
believe  that  this  failure  is  due  to  their  faults  and 
imperfections  ;  and  that  if  there  is  any  good  in 
them,  their  working  will  be  carried  on  by  others. 
We  are  like  the  runners  in  a  torch-race,  as 
Lucretius  put  it,  who  pass  on  the  torch  from  one 


256  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


to  another  in  the  certainty  that  the  last  runner 
will  reach  the  goal.  Thus  eternal  life  in  the 
spirit  is  a  necessary  corollary,  if  we  believe,  in 
the  first  place,  in  law  in  the  moral  world,  and  in 
the  second  place,  in  the  final  triumph  of  good. 

The  gradual  approach  to  the  divine  is  a  pro¬ 
cess  which  we  may  all  in  some  measure  realise. 
In  a  few  exceptional  natures  it  may  go  on  until 
the  individuality  is  obscured  and  all  but  merged 
in  the  life  which  is  spiritual  and  eternal.  This  is 
the  great  teaching  of  the  higher  mysticism,  which 
belongs  to  all  religion.  Such  merging  was  sought 
by  Greek  philosophers  by  the  way  of  thought 
and  contemplation.  It  is  sought  by  the  Buddhists 
through  asceticism  and  the  conquest  of  personal 
feeling  of  pleasure  or  pain.  It  may  be  sought  in 
modern  days  by  the  votaries  of  science  who 
recognise  what  Bergson  calls  revolution  creatrice, 
who  have  an  intense  inner  sympathy  with  the 
power  which  lies  behind  evolution,  and  has  been 
all  through  history  gradually  moulding  the  visible 
into  the  likeness  of  the  divine  ideas  or  forms 
which  have  always  existed  in  the  divine  thought  ; 
and  which  in  spite  of  all  retrogression  and  opposi¬ 
tion  are  gradually  taking  form  in  the  world. 

All  these  ways  of  approach  to  the  eternal  life 
are  open  to  Christians.  But  the  Christian  has 
also  open  to  him  a  more  excellent  way.  The 
incarnation  of  God  in  Christ,  the  pouring  out  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  on  the  followers  of  Christ  in  the 


ETERNAL  LIFE 


257 


early  age  of  Christianity,  the  formation  in  the 
Christian  Church  of  a  body  of  believers  who 
through  the  ages  carry  on  the  life  of  Christ  in 
the  world,  —  all  these  make  possible,  and  in 
some  degree  actual,  a  higher  form  of  mysticism. 
Christian  mysticism  has  never  yet,  save  in  the 
person  of  the  Founder,  reached  any  final  or  per¬ 
fect  development ;  but  in  the  past  many  Chris¬ 
tians  have  approached  the  highest  type. 

In  spite  of  the  weaknesses  of  individual  Chris¬ 
tians,  Christian  mysticism  is  a  special  type.  The 
point  on  which  it  stands  contrasted  with  the 
mysticism  of  the  Buddhist,  is  that  it  does  not 
make  war  on  and  try  to  destroy  the  human  will. 
In  Christ  there  was  a  human  as  well  as  a  divine 
will,  as  is  most  evidently  shown  in  the  last 

prayer,  ‘‘  Not  my  will,  but  thine,  be  done.”  The 
human  will  has  to  subordinate  itself  to  the  divine, 
it  has  to  stand  resolutely  on  the  side  of  the 

divine  will  against  the  world,  but  it  does  not 

cease  to  exist. 

Some  recent  writers  have  greatly  perplexed 

themselves,  and  even  given  way  to  despair, 

because  they  think  it  demonstrated  by  science 

that  within  measurable  time  the  heat  of  our 

globe  will  fail  and  life  will  come  to  an  end  on  it. 

Such  overstrained  anxieties  seem  to  me  out  of 

place.  We  cannot  so  fully  grasp  the  future  as 

to  be  sure  that  the  predictions  of  the  astro- 

are  to  be  trusted.  Einstein  seems  to 

17 


nomers 


258  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


have  shown  that  they  have  yet  much  to  learn. 
And  even  if  they  have  rightly  foreseen  the  in¬ 
evitable  end  of  the  world,  there  lies  above  and 
beyond  it  the  world  of  spirit,  and  processes  begun 
on  this  earth  may  be  carried  on  elsewhere.  The 
experience  of  life  in  this  world  may  make  it 
possible  for  the  Creative  Spirit  to  develop  life 
and  goodness  more  easily  and  rapidly  on  some 
other  planet.  Our  globe  floats  in  an  ocean  of 
spirit ;  at  present  a  fascinating  drama  of  history 
is  being  worked  out  on  it.  But  other  acts  of  the 
drama  may  take  place  in  other  worlds.  A 
generation  which  communicates  by  wireless  tele¬ 
graph  with  distant  countries  need  not  despair  of 
communicating  thought  to  other  worlds.  And 
the  ways  of  spirit  are  much  more  subtle  than 
those  of  electricity.  To  the  spirit  the  vast  spaces 
which  separate  world  from  world  do  not  exist. 
It  seems  to  me  perfectly  possible  that  the  great 
crises  of  history,  the  sudden  turning  of  the  general 
consciousness  of  men  on  earth  in  new  directions, 
may  be  connected  with  spiritual  storms  in  other 
worlds.  This  is,  of  course,  all  matter  of  possi¬ 
bility  and  conjecture,  but  no  one  can  reasonably 
declare  it  impossible. 


CHAPTER  XI 


THE  CATHOLIC  CHURCH 

The  Collective  Consciousness  of  the 

Church 

In  this  section  we  have  to  deal  with  the  Church 
as  the  Community  of  saints.  It  is  in  regard 
to  the  nature  and  the  value  of  the  Christian 
Community  that  we  find  the  widest  difference  be¬ 
tween  individual  Christians  and  between  different 
branches  of  the  Church,  differences  so  profound 
that  they  constitute  a  great  barrier  to  any 
scheme  for  the  reuniting  of  Christendom.  In 
England  and  America  a  multitude  of  Christians, 
good  and  highly  religious  men,  approach  the 
Faith  from  a  merely  personal  standpoint,  attaining 
to  a  personal  relationship  to  God  in  Christ,  but 
looking  on  Churches,  and  indeed  on  all  the 
outward  phenomena  of  religion,  as  merely  destined 
to  help  individuals  towards  a  higher  and  more 
continuous  realisation  of  God.  At  the  other 
extreme  the  Roman  Church  subordinates  com¬ 
pletely  the  individual  to  the  society  ;  it  is  for 
the  organised  society  to  dictate  creeds  and 
principles  of  conduct,  and  for  the  members  of  the 
Church  merely  to  obey.  So  we  have  continual 

269 


260  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


cross-currents,  many  members  of  the  Roman 
Church  constantly  rebelling  against  ordinances 
which  offend  the  conscience  and  lapsing  from 
loyalty,  and  many  Protestants  falling  into  despair 
of  individual  religion  and  seeking  a  haven  of  rest 
in  a  Church  which  has  no  doubt  of  its  own 
infallibility,  and  is  willing,  on  condition  of 
obedience,  to  undertake  the  whole  responsibility 
of  the  saving  of  the  souls  of  its  votaries. 

It  seems  to  me  that  modern  psychology,  with 
its  insistence  on  the  existence  in  every  organised 
society  of  a  group-mind,  which  is  more  than  the 
sum  of  the  minds  of  individuals  of  the  group, 
has  thrown  fresh  light  on  this  whole  question. ^ 
It  has  furnished  an  observational  or  scientific 
basis  for  the  doctrine  of  a  Church.  It  clearly 
distinguishes  between  a  crowd  and  an  organised 
society.  In  the  former  there  is  an  intensification 
of  emotion,  a  sensibility  which  may  be  influenced 
to  great  effect  by  a  skilled  orator  ;  but  there  can 
scarcely  be  said  to  be  a  common  intelligence  or 
a  common  conscience.  Rather,  great  waves  of 
feeling  and  passion  sweep  away  alike  the  minds 
and  the  consciences  of  individuals,  so  that  the 
crowd  becomes  a  terrible,  but  a  blind,  almost  an 
insane,  force.  On  the  other  hand,  in  organised 
groups  and  societies  there  is  what  may  be  regarded 
as  a  corporate  consciousness,  in  some  ways  like 

^  See  especially  W.  M^Dougall,  Elements  of  Social  Psy¬ 
chology  and  The  Group  Mind. 


CONSCIOUSNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH  261 


the  consciousness  of  an  individual,  but  wider  and 
more  enduring,  having  distinct  traits  in  morals, 
manners,  and  intelligence. 

It  is  thus  with  nations.  Mere  blood  and 
descent  do  not  make  a  nation,  though  of  course 
inherited  tendencies  go  for  much.  The  English 
people  is  in  many  ways  very  homogeneous, 
though  in  race  it  is  very  mixed,  consisting  of 
elements  Celtic,  Saxon,  Danish,  Flemish,  Jewish, 
and  what  not  ?  with  a  strong  substratum  of 
primitive  and  pre-Celtic  inhabitants.  The  Scot¬ 
tish  nation  is  now  fairly  homogeneous,  though  it 
consists  of  two  sections,  the  Gaelic  or  Highland 
and  the  Saxon  or  Lowland.  The  Welsh  people 
is  homogeneous,  though  the  mass  of  it  is  racially 
pre-Celtic,  consisting  of  very  primitive  elements. 
The  French  nation  is  homogeneous,  though  it 
consists  of  Gaul  and  Frank,  Breton  and  Gascon. 
And  political  history  does  not  by  itself  make  a 
nation.  Though  England  and  south  Ireland 
have  been  long  politically  united,  they  do  not 
together  make  a  nation ;  nor  do  south  and 
north  Ireland  make  a  nation,  though  they  are 
enclosed  in  one  small  island.  Austria  has  never 
been  a  nation,  though  its  political  history  has 
been  important  and  consistent. 

The  course  of  political  history,  and  above  all 
identity  of  institutions,  a  common  language  and 
literature,  common  religious  beliefs,  gradually 
mould  a  congeries  of  tribes  into  a  nation,  which 


262  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


speaks  through  its  great  men,  its  poets,  and 
orators  and  men  of  action,  and  which  acquires 
what  is  often  called,  in  what  is  scarcely  a  meta¬ 
phor,  a  soul.  And  this  soul  dominates  the 
conscious  and  still  more  the  unconscious  life  of 
all  the  individuals  of  the  nation,  so  that  clear¬ 
sighted  statesmen  can  often  judge  what  course 
the  popular  feeling  of  a  nation  will  take  under 
definite  conditions. 

Within  the  nation,  which  is  held  together  by 
a  definite  political  constitution,  and  which  has 
visible  limitations  of  territory,  we  have  in  modern 
days  a  number  of  societies,  consisting  of  voluntary 
associates,  and  held  together  not  so  much  by 
organisation  as  by  ideas.  No  one  can  enumerate 
them,  for  they  are  innumerable,  and  spring  up 
like  mushrooms  on  every  side.  There  are  learned 
academies  belonging  to  nations  and  universities, 
whose  basis  is  the  love  of  learning  and  research. 
Then  all  the  different  branches  of  science  and 
learning  are  represented  by  voluntary  societies, 
the  members  of  which  are  united  in  a  common 
admiration  and  pursuit,  the  Classical  Association, 
the  Entomological  Society,  the  Psychical  Society, 
and  a  host  of  others.  Or  they  are  organised  with 
a  view  to  practical  results,  as  the  College  of 
Surgeons,  the  Royal  Academy  of  Art,  the  Institute 
of  Architects,  and  the  like.  All  of  these  useful 
institutions  may  be  said  in  a  sense  to  have  a 
soul,  to  represent  a  side  of  human  thought  or 


CONSCIOUSNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH  263 


practice ;  and  many  of  them  have  devoted 
officials,  who  may  be  said  almost  to  sink  their 
own  personalities  in  that  of  the  society  to  which 
they  belong. 

I  need  speak  of  but  one  class  of  these  societies, 
the  class  devoted  to  religion.  In  the  ancient 
world  religion  belonged  to  the  state.  We  may 
say  almost  indifferently  that  the  gods  belonged  to 
the  state,  or  that  the  state  belonged  to  the  gods. 
In  each  organised  community  there  were  tradi¬ 
tional  rites  and  observances  with  which  the  well¬ 
being  of  the  state  was  supposed  to  be  bound  up, 
and  which  could  not  with  impunity  be  neglected. 
Patriotism  and  the  service  of  the  national  deities 
were  bound  so  closely  together  as  to  be  in¬ 
separable  ;  the  king  or  the  magistrate  was  the 
priest ;  and  his  personal  character  and  private 
opinions  were  of  no  importance,  so  long  as  he 
carried  through  the  religious  ceremonials  of  the 
state  with  scrupulous  exactness.  The  Roman 
Emperor  was  ex  officio  Pontifex  Maximus  of  the 
Roman  state,  though  he  was  often  a  complete 
sceptic  in  religious  matters.  Sometimes,  how¬ 
ever,  the  order  was  reversed,  as  in  some  states  in 
Asia  Minor,  where,  instead  of  the  king  being 
priest,  the  priest  was  king;  his  sacred  character 
overshadowing  and  absorbing  his  civic  and  mili¬ 
tary  functions.  A  very  remarkable  and  excep¬ 
tional  form  of  religious  rule  or  theocracy  was 
that  which  prevailed  in  Israel  before  the  nation 


264  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


copied  its  neighbours  in  instituting  kingship. 
Here  the  prophet  was  judge  of  the  nation.  By 
the  direct  inspiration  of  Jehovah,  as  every  one 
believed,  one  prophet  after  another,  sometimes 
even  prophets  of  the  female  sex,  arose,  and,  if 
they  succeeded  in  repelling  the  foes  of  Israel, 
seem  to  have  exercised  considerable  power  for  a 
time.  In  the  lives  of  Samuel,  Elijah,  and  Elisha, 
we  see  a  picture  of  the  clashing  between  the 
old  prophetic  dominance  and  the  new  military 
kingship,  which  seems  to  have  been  forced  on  the 
nation  by  external  attacks. 

Then,  in  the  gradual  decay  of  the  religion  of 
the  state,  most  prominently  in  Greece,  we  trace 
the  rise  of  voluntary  religious  societies.  Their 
outstanding  feature  was  their  independence  of 
the  state.  Men  did  not  belong  to  them  by  birth, 
but  from  choice.  Their  ultimate  ruler  was  some 
spiritual  being  or  deified  ancestor,  for  no  clear 
line  was  drawn  between  these.  Under  him  the 
society  was  ruled  by  a  class  of  priests,  who  pro¬ 
fessed  to  declare  his  will,  which  was  revealed 
either  in  sacred  books  treasured  by  the  priests,  or 
by  continued  inspiration  mostly  imparted  to 
the  latter  when  they  were  in  a  condition  of  trance 
or  of  sacred  ecstasy.  The  society  no  doubt 
externalised  its  inspiration,  regarded  it  as  coming 
from  a  spiritual  patron,  Mithras,  or  Sabazius,  or 
Isis ;  and  of  these  the  priests  sometimes  had 
visions.  There  was  an  almost  unlimited  possi- 


CONSCIOUSNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH  265 


bility  of  intellectual  error  in  these  externalisations. 
Mithras  was  the  sublimated  sun,  Isis  an  ancient 
Egyptian  goddess,  Sabazius  a  Phrygian  deity  of 
the  low’er  world.  And  even  the  priests  called 
their  divine  patrons  by  many  names,  and  had 
very  vague  notions  as  to  their  real  being. 

Those  who  wish  to  gain  some  insight  into  the 
character  of  the  mystic  religions  of  later  Greece 
should  read  the  latter  part  of  the  Golden  Ass  or 
Matamorphoses  of  Apuleius,  a  writer  of  the 
Antonine  age.  In  the  eleventh  book  he  gives  a 
most  vivid  and  instructive  picture  of  the  cult 
of  the  great  goddess  of  nature,  whom  he  regards 
as  embodied  in  the  moon,  and  best  worshipped 
under  the  name  of  Isis.  The  character  of  her 
priests,  the  mystic  devotion  of  her  votaries,  the 
prayers  by  which  she  was  approached,  the 
ceremonies  in  which  she  was  revealed,  the  crown¬ 
ing  vision  in  which,  in  a  supremely  beautiful 
form,  she  sometimes  showed  herself  to  favoured 
followers,  are  there  set  forth  in  a  way  which, 
once  realised,  can  scarcely  be  forgotten. 

In  the  light  of  modern  social  psychology  these 
cults  change  their  aspect.  No  doubt  each  of 
them  represented  some  power  or  energy  of  the 
spiritual  world  working  in  the  sub-consciousness 
of  their  representatives  on  earth,  and  in  the 
society  dominated  by  those  representatives.  The 
Jews,  with  their  extreme  and  intolerant  mono¬ 
theism,  would  say  that  they  were  nothing  at  all. 


266  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 

mere  delusions.  But  that  was  not  the  usual 
view  of  the  early  Christians,  who  were  convinced 
that  they  were  demons,  evil  spiritual  powers  who 
swayed  their  votaries,  and  led  them  to  perdition. 
To  them  the  heathen  gods  were  not,  as  they 
were  to  the  strict  Jews,  dumb  and  useless 
idols,  but  spiritual  powers  who  resisted  the  light 
and  inspiration  of  Christianity,  and  urged  their 
disciples  into  the  conflict  with  the  spirit  which 
worked  in  the  Church.  I  think  that  modern 
science  and  investigation  would  agree  rather 
with  the  Christian  than  with  the  Jewish  view. 
These  powers  were  something  above  and  beyond 
the  personalities  of  the  pagans,  real  powers 
working  in  their  sub-consciousness. 

St  Paul,  with  an  inconsistency  by  no  means  un¬ 
usual  in  him,  takes  up  sometimes  the  one  view, 
sometimes  the  other.  The  pagan  deities,  he 
sometimes  says,  are  nothing  at  all,  dumb  and 
inanimate  idols.  But  in  other  places  he  says 
that  those  who  sacrificed  to  them  sacrificed  to 
devils,  and  not  to  God.  Generally  speaking,  in 
the  whole  early  age  of  Christianity  diabolic 
inspiration  was  as  fully  believed  in  as  divine 
inspiration.  As  the  inspiration  of  Moses  had 
grappled  with  and  overthrown  the  enchantments 
of  the  magicians  of  Egypt,  so  the  Christian 
inspiration  was  ready  to  attack  and  destroy  the 
spiritual  forces  of  paganism.  That  way  of  regard¬ 
ing  things  has  fallen  out  of  modern  Christianity, 


CONSCIOUSNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH  267 


which  has  mostly  reverted  to  the  cruder  Jewish 
view.  But  the  experience  of  life  has,  I  think, 
tended  to  bring  us  baek  to  it.  If  there  be  a 
spiritual  inspiration  which  leads  men  to  good, 
there  are  also  parallel  inspirations  which  lead  men 
to  evil.  In  Reformation  times,  the  conflict  between 
Christianity  and  magic  repeated  the  early  confliet 
between  Christianity  and  the  pagan  societies. 

We  know  so  little  about  Mithraism  and  the  other 
mystic  faiths  which  competed  with  early  Christi¬ 
anity,  that  we  are  scarcely  able  to  estimate  their 
moral  qualities.  The  true  Christian  way  is  to 
judge  them  by  their  fruits  ;  and  we  do  not  know 
with  any  exaetness  what  those  fruits  were.  But 
it  is  scarcely  possible  to  doubt  that  as  a  whole 
they  were  on  an  immeasurably  lower  level  than 
Christianity  :  and  that  the  contest  between 
Christianity  and  them  was  one  between  light 
and  darkness.  To  pagan  observers  of  the  time, 
Christianity  seemed  to  be  one  of  the  many 
mystic  cults  ;  and  so  it  was  in  many  external 
points.  But  it  only  resembled  the  rest  as  a 
beautiful  flower  resembles  a  worthless  weed, 
which  may  belong  to  the  same  botanical  genus. 
I  am  speaking,  of  course,  of  the  Christianity  of 
the  post-apostolic  age  ;  the  Christianity  of  the 
origins  was  regarded  as  a  mere  heretical  Jewish 
sect,  as  we  learn  from  many  passages  in  Acts  : 
but  when  it  took  root  outside  Judea,  in  such 
Hellenistic  cities  as  Ephesus,  or  Antioch,  or 


I 


268  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 

Alexandria,  it  soon  changed  its  external  form, 
and  adapted  itself  to  the  Hellenistic  world. 

Christianity  in  the  early  Roman  Empire  was 
in  some  ways  parallel  to  the  religions  of  Isis  and 
Sabazius.  It  had  a  class  of  priests  who  repre¬ 
sented  in  it  the  influence  of  the  Founder.  It  had 
sacred  books  or  oracles,  both  in  the  Jewish 
Scriptures  and  in  the  writings  of  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment.  It  had  sacred  rites  of  initiation  and 
communion,  which  were  kept  as  far  as  possible 
from  heathen  observation.  But  above  all,  it 
stood  in  an  intimate  relation  to  an  unseen 
spiritual  power,  which  worked  in  the  com¬ 
munity  of  believers  by  inspiration,  and  some¬ 
times  by  vision  or  miracle,  or  ecstatic  utterance. 

It  is  this  continuous  inspiration,  continuous 
through  all  countries,  and  through  all  ages, 
which  is  the  life  and  soul  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
the  Communion  of  Saints.  In  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  it  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  the  Spirit  of 
Christ,  or  the  Eternal  Christ ;  and  sometimes  as 
the  Holy  Spirit  of  God.  When  Schleiermacher 
spoke  of  it  as  the  Gemeingeist  or  common  spirit 
of  the  Church,  he  was  partly  right  and  partly 
wrong.  He  was  right  in  so  far  as  the  inspiration 
belongs  primarily  to  the  Church  as  a  whole,  and 
only  secondarily  to  individual  members  of  it. 
But  perhaps  he  too  completely  regarded  it  as  the 
mere  resultant  of  the  tendencies  of  Christians. 
It  was  more  than  that ;  something  added  to  it 


CONSCIOUSNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH  269 


by  an  inspiration  from  the  world  of  spirit,  a 
great  spiritual  power  which  lived  in  the  Church, 
as  a  spirit  lives  in  a  human  body  in  constant 
connection  with  the  infinite  ocean  of  spirit. 

Christian  thought  has  to  consider  and  define 
the  relations  which  the  spirit  in  the  Church 
bears  to  the  historic  Jesus,  to  the  infinite  Divine 
Father,  and  to  the  Divine  Spirit  which  works 
through  history  on  human  society.  This  has  in 
effect  been  the  subject  of  previous  chapters. 

What  also  is  necessarv  is  to  consider  how  this 

«/ 

divine  influence  works  in  the  history  of  the 
Church,  in  the  three  realms  of  knowledge,  of 
emotion,  and  of  will;  how  it  becomes  embodied 
in  creeds,  in  ritual,  and  ceremony,  and  in  out¬ 
ward  organisation.  Those  who  think  that  the 
external  in  life  works  on  and  moulds  the  internal, 
will  begin  with  organisation,  regarding  that  as 
the  essential  in  Christianity,  and  will  set  it 
down  as  the  business  of  the  officers  of  a  Church 
whose  organisation  is  the  direct  result  of  divine 
command  to  determine  both  the  beliefs  and  the 
ritual  of  the  Church.  This  tends  to  materialism. 
I  think  that,  on  the  contrary,  the  working  is  from 
the  internal  outwards,  that  doctrine,  ceremony, 
and  even  organisation  are  the  fruit  of  inner 
impulse,  the  result  of  the  activity  of  divine 
ideas,  working  first  in  the  unconscious  strata  of 
man’s  being,  then  in  his  conscious  life,  then  in 
the  world  of  matter  and  experience. 


270  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


It  is  in  this  way  that  I  have  treated  the  history 
of  the  Church  in  my  Exploratio  Evangelica.  But 
since,  even  in  a  large  work,  I  could  only  speak  of 
these  vast  subjects  in  mere  outline,  it  is  clear 
that  it  would  be  a  hopeless  task  to  try  to  investi¬ 
gate  them  here  in  a  much  smaller  book.  It  is  to 
the  Exploratio  that  I  must  direct  those  who  are 
interested  in  seeing  whither  the  course  of  religious 
thought  which  I  have  here  followed  works  out  in 
Christian  history.  In  a  more  popular  work.  The 
Growth  of  Christianity,  I  have  treated  the  same 
subject  more  slightly,  with  stronger  light  and  shade. 

Since,  however,  I  cannot  expect  the  reader  to 
break  off  at  this  point,  and  to  turn  to  my  previous 
books,  and  as  most  readers  will  not  have  read, 
or  at  all  events  will  not  remember  the  course 
taken  in  them,  I  will  add  here  a  brief  summary 
of  the  argument  of  the  earlier  chapters  of  it 
—  the  Exploratio  —  chapters  in  which  I  find 
nothing  of  importance  to  alter.  This  summary 
is  taken  from  Chapter  XL  of  the  work  in  question. 
In  Chapters  II,  III,  and  IV  the  psychology  of 
religious  belief  is  briefly  set  forth.  The  basis  of 
religion  is  experience,  in  particular  the  experience 
of  sin  and  its  removal,  and  of  the  answer  to 
prayer.  On  such  experiences  must  be  based,  in 
the  first  place,  an  intense  conviction  of  a  Power 
within  which  works  for  righteousness  ;  and  in  the 
second  place,  all  assertions  as  to  the  divine 
attributes.  By  the  same  mental  process  which 


CONSCIOUSNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH  271 


discloses  to  us  other  selves  in  the  world,  we 
reach  the  assertion  of  an  objective  Deity  who  is 
good,  who  answers  prayer,  and  whose  being 
includes  personality. 

Chapters  V  and  VI  dwell  on  the  truth  that 
religious  doctrine,  being  thus  reached  through 
experience  and  not  by  reasoning,  must  not  be 
used  as  a  basis  for  speculative  construction. 
The  truths  of  religion  are  not  speculatively 
valid  :  their  validity  is  universally  subjective 
and  practically  objective.  Religious  metaphysics 
leads  to  insoluble  contradictions  ;  yet  intellectual 
illusion  may,  like  other  forms  of  illusion,  lead  to 
happiness  in  life.  But  the  only  religion  which 
can  be  secured  against  scepticism  is  relative 
religion,  religion  as  revealed  to  man,  and  as 
adapted  to  a  human  environment. 

Chapters  VII  and  VIII  trace  in  the  field  of 
history  the  working  of  the  same  phenomena 
which  previous  chapters  had  considered  in  relation 
to  individual  experience.  History,  like  conduct, 
reveals  a  Power  working  for  righteousness.  The 
activities  of  this  Power  we  choose  to  designate 
by  the  phrase  “  divine  ideas  ”  ;  but  it  must  be 
understood  that  the  word  ‘‘  idea  ”  here  signifies 
a  working  impulse,  not  a  mental  concept.^  The 

1  The  likeness  of  this  view  to  those  of  Newman  in  his 
Grammar  of  Assent,  and  even  to  those  of  Bergson,  is  obvious. 
But  I  must  be  allowed  to  point  out  that  it  was  written  before 
the  publication  of  Bergson’s  system. 


272  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


divine  ideas  work  first  on  the  will  then  on  the 
intellect  and  aesthetic  faculties,  leading  to  desire, 
to  doctrine,  to  art,  and  to  organisation.  The 
determination  of  the  working  ideas  as  good, 
temporary,  and  bad,  is  a  matter  of  the  utmost 
difficulty ;  we  can  only  venture  to  say  that 
ideas  which  lead  to  the  destruction  of  society  are 
bad,  those  which  tend  to  the  preservation  of 
society  must  contain  good  elements. 

Chapters  IX  and  X  contain  the  germs  of  those 
that  follow.  We  try  to  trace  the  ways  in  which 
the  ideas  are  intellectually  embodied  in  the 
world.  In  primitive  times  they  are  commonly 
embodied  in  myth,  being  usually  aetiological  in 
character.  Ethical  impulses  give  rise  to  myth 
in  accordance  with  national  character,  and  the 
fittest  myths  survive.  The  myth  is  purely  in¬ 
definite,  without  relation  to  time  ;  as  the  age  of 
myths  passes  away,  three  outgrowths  take  its 
place,  related  to  time — past,  present,  and  future. 
In  relation  to  the  past,  the  ideas  are  embodied 
in  ethical  history,  into  which  myth  passes  by 
imperceptible  gradations.  In  relation  to  the 
future,  the  ideas  are  embodied  in  prophecy, 
which  is  of  quite  a  different  character  from 
modern  scientific  prediction.  In  relation  to  the 
present,  the  myths  are  embodied  in  parable ; 
and  then  in  doctrine,  which  is  a  statement  of 
relative  truth  in  regard  to  the  supersensual 
world. 


CONSCIOUSNESS  OF  THE  CHURCH  273 

*¥ 

With  Chapter  XI  we  pass  from  general  prineiples 
to  the  origins  of  Christianity,  and  apply  to  them 
the  philosophie  and  historic  views  already  set 
forth. 

This  seems  to  me  a  true  summary  of  the 
history  of  the  Church. 

More  recently  two  able  theologians,  Dr  A.  J. 
Carlyle  and  Dr  Vernon  Bartlet,  have  gone  over 
much  the  same  ground  with  far  more  learning 
and  in  greater  detail  in  their  Christianity  in 
History,  But  in  fact  this  way  of  treating  the 
history  of  the  Church  has  in  recent  times  become 
more  and  more  usual,  and  is  the  method  of  a 
large  proportion  of  our  theologians.  All  that  I 
have  tried  to  do  is  to  give  articulate  expression 
to  a  tendency  of  the  modern  intelligence. 

It  is  obvious  that,  in  speaking  of  the  Church, 
I  am  not  meaning  to  confine  the  term  to  any 
particular  branch  of  it.  JJhi  Christus  ibi  Ecclesia. 
The  Articles  define  the  Church  as  “  a  congregation 
of  faithful  men  in  the  which  the  pure  Word  of 
God  is  preached,  and  the  Sacraments  be  duly 
administered.”  The  various  Churches  of  Christen¬ 
dom,  Eastern,  Roman,  and  Reformed,  each  em¬ 
body  some  side  of  the  Christian  inspiration,  and, 
alas  !  all  mix  that  inspiration  with  much  that  is 
unworthy  and  impure.  In  my  opinion  any 
outward  and  visible  union  between  them  is 
almost  impossible ;  and  it  may  even  be  doubted 

whether  it  is  desirable,  for  varieties  of  organisa- 

18 


274  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


tion  and  ritual  suit  various  countries  and  tempera¬ 
ments.  An  outwardly  united  Church,  as  we  see 
from  the  history  of  the  Middle  Ages,  is  in  great 
danger  of  degeneration  ;  the  various  organisations 
in  it  keep  the  blood  flowing.  Intercourse  and 
combination  for  Christian  purposes  between 
branches  of  the  Church  is  much  to  be  desired  :  the 
rule  of  the  whole  by  any  curia  or  committee  is 
hardly  to  be  wished  for.  The  unity  of  what  is 
Christlike  in  all  the  visible  Churches  in  one 
invisible  Church  is  far  more  in  accord  with  the 
spirit  of  the  Founder. 

The  Communion  of  Saints 

An  aspect  of  the  Catholic  Church  which  calls 
for  special  notice  here  is  that  in  which  it  includes 
not  only  the  living  members  of  the  Church,  but 
also  the  members  who  have  passed  away.  ‘‘  The 
saints  on  earth  and  all  the  dead  but  one 
communion  make.” 

To  many  the  phrase  of  the  Creed,  “  I  believe 
in  the  communion  of  saints,”  has  a  special  and  an 
important  meaning.  They  think  of  the  saints 
not  as  all  the  departed,  but  as  those  who  have 
attained  to  a  high  rank  in  the  divine  kingdom. 
And  they  like  to  think  of  such  as  always  near  to 
help  and  to  encourage,  to  lead  in  the  direction  of 
heaven,  and  to  frustrate  the  powers  of  evil, 
which  are  always  ready  to  take  advantage  of 
unguarded  moments.  They  feel  that  God  is 


THE  COMMUNION  OF  SAINTS 


275 


high  and  not  always  easy  of  approach,  and  think 
that  even  Christ  has  more  sympathy  with  the 
exalted  moods  of  the  spirit  than  with  the  conduct 
and  the  needs  of  every  day.  They  have  a  longing 
for  more  intimate  and  less  exalted  spiritual 
guides.  This  need  has  been  in  times  past  met 
by  the  belief  which  has  been  general  in  the 
Church  either  in  special  guardian  angels,  or  in 
saints  who  have  been  canonised  by  the  Church, 
and  who  have  served  as  intermediaries  between 
men  and  God. 

Many  theologians,  especially  in  England,  would 
regard  the  subject  as  one  which  did  not  need 
treatment.  They  would  regard  the  desire  as  a 
perversion  of  pure  Christianity  ;  and  the  means 
for  meeting  it  as  merely  superstitious.  The 
abuses  which  sprang  up  in  mediaeval  Europe  in 
connection  with  the  veneration  of  saints  were 
so  patent,  that  the  great  Reformers  struck  at 
the  custom  some  of  their  hardest  blows,  and 
destroyed  it  root  and  branch  in  many  places. 
Yet  it  had  embodied  for  ages  a  real  phase  of  the 
personal  religion  of  the  people,  and  tended  not 
only  to  the  virtue,  but  even  more  fully  to  the 
happiness  of  many.  And  we  find  in  the  lives 
of  many  who  do  not  belong  to  Catholicism, 
Renan  for  example,  a  conviction  of  the  constant 
presence  and  aid  of  departed  members  of  their 
family.  In  a  work  like  the  present  it  will  not 
answer  to  throw  aside  the  features  of  Christianity 


276  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


which  have  led  to  abuse.  Our  business  is  rather 
to  consider  what  human  needs  lay  at  the  root 
of  that  particular  phase  of  Christian  experience, 
and  whether  those  needs  may  be  satisfactorily  met. 

When  we  consider  the  veneration  of  saints  in 
the  mediaeval  and  in  the  modern  Roman  Church 
from  the  purely  historic  and  rationalist  side,  we 
are  repelled.  We  observe  that  many  of  the 
saints  of  the  Calendar,  and  even  of  the  saints 
to  whom  worship  has  been  especially  addressed, 
either  never  lived  at  all,  or  at  all  events  are  not 
shown  by  history  to  have  exhibited  in  their  lives 
such  high  virtue  and  spiritual  attainments  as  to 
merit  an  exalted  position  in  the  realm  of  spirits. 
Examples  can  easily  be  cited.  Saint  George,  the 
patron  saint  of  England,  is  of  uncertain  origin, 
and  cannot  be  called  a  historic  character.  Saint 
Denys,  the  patron  saint  of  France,  is  in  much 
the  same  position,  as  indeed  are  many  of  the 
saints  in  most  repute  in  mediaeval  Europe. 

In  the  veneration  of  saints  as  accepted  in  the 
mediaeval  Church,  and  as  continued  in  the 
Church  of  Rome,  there  are  two  special  difficulties. 

The  first  arises  from  the  fact  that  the  test  of 
sainthood  was  the  performance  of  miracles,  either 
by  the  saint  in  his  lifetime  or  by  bis  remains 
when  dead.  This  is  a  purely  external  test ; 
and  one  of  a  singularly  unfortunate  kind.  The 
miracles,  or  at  all  events  those  for  which  there 
is  the  best  evidence,  were  mostly  miracles  of 


THE  COMMUNION  OF  SAINTS 


277 


healing.  And  we  now  know  enough  of  faith¬ 
healing  and  the  working  of  suggestion  to  know 
that  such  phenomena,  though  real,  are  of  a 
subjective  character,  and  cannot  be  used  as 
objective  proofs  of  the  sainthood,  the  virtue  or 
even  the  existence  of  the  person  to  whose  agency 
they  are  attributed.  In  ancient  and  mediaeval 
times,  as  we  know,  evil  spirits  were  credited  with 
powers  to  work  miracles,  though  lesser  powers 
than  those  of  the  great  Christians.  And  in 
modern  days,  faith-healing  has  been,  and  is, 
constantly  exercised  by  people  who  have  no 
claim  to  saintliness,  and  are  even  of  very  doubtful 
character.  They  do  not  usually  pretend  that 
it  is  their  goodness,  or  their  close  relation  to  the 
world  of  spirit,  which  enables  them  to  work 
these  remarkable  cures  :  sometimes  they  have 
no  theory  as  to  the  source  of  their  power,  they 
only  know  by  experience  that  it  exists.  And 
when  we  come  to  the  miracles  wrought  not  by  a 
living  influence,  but  by  the  dead  bodies  of  saints, 
we  fall  to  a  still  lower  level.  A  multitude  of 
instances  might  be  cited  in  which  the  body  or 
relic  which  wrought  the  miracle  was  not  that  of  a 
saint  at  all,  but  a  corpse  found  in  the  catacombs 
of  Rome,  and  quite  unidentified.  There  is  no 
history  more  full  of  imposture  and  of  greed 
than  the  history  of  the  trade  in  relics,  about 
which  many  papers,  both  instructive  and  amusing, 
have  been  written.  Alleged  miracles,  or  even 


278  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


miracles  supported  by  what  looks  like  respectable 
testimony,  have  little  evidential  influence  on  the 
modern  mind.  Such  works  as  Dr  E.  Abbott’s 
elaborate  examination  of  the  miracles  attributed 
to  St.  Thomas  at  Canterbury,  are  irresistible  in 
their  proof  that  miracles  of  faith-healing  were 
not  outside  the  order  of  nature,  and  that  there 
is  no  adequate  testimony  for  miracles  of  a  less 
ambiguous  kind. 

The  second  point  on  which  the  mediaeval  saint- 
worship  is  unsatisfactory  is  the  kind  of  excellence 
which  belonged  to  those  who  were  canonised. 
The  tales  told  of  them  in  the  great  Bollandist 
collection,  not  only  in  the  majority  of  cases  rest 
on  little  historic  evidence,  but  they  do  not  to  a 
modern  mind  exhibit  the  highest  virtues.  To  be 
willing  to  be  martyred  for  one’s  belief  is  doubtless 
a  proof  of  sincerity  ;  but  it  does  not  prove  either 
moral  greatness  or  intellectual  eminence,  or  even 
orthodoxy.  Very  often  the  martyrdom  was  by 
no  means  voluntary.  And  virginity,  which  is 
one  of  the  commonest  titles  to  merit  in  female 
saints,  is  not  in  itself  a  virtue,  though  of  course 
under  certain  circumstances  its  acceptance  in 
preference  to  the  married  life  might  have  been 
the  result  of  spiritual  fervour.  Any  modern 
writer  on  ethics,  whether  Christian  or  agnostic, 
whether  Catholic  or  Protestant,  would  draw  up  a 
very  different  list  of  historic  saints  from  that  which 
has  the  authority  of  the  Church. 


THE  COMMUNION  OF  SAINTS 


279 


Auguste  Comte,  in  his  Positivist  Calendar, 
drew  up  a  list  of  saints,  after  whom  he  proposed 
to  name  the  days  and  the  months  of  the  year. 
And  whatever  objeetions  may  be  raised  to  some 
of  his  nominations,  his  list  is  ineomparably 
superior  to  that  of  the  Roman  Church.  It 
includes  nearly  all  the  great  personalities  of  the 
world’s  history,  rulers  and  poets,  religious  leaders 
and  discoverers,  men  of  science  and  social  re¬ 
formers.  The  great  difference  between  the  two 
lists,  however,  is  that  one  has  behind  it  the 
authority  of  the  Western  Church,  while  the  other 
is  a  mere  intellectual  construction,  in  which 
every  one  feels  at  liberty  to  make  alterations  and 
amendments. 

But  when  we  turn  from  spurious  history  and 
miracles  of  suggestion  to  the  psychology  of 
saint-worship,  we  enter  a  very  different  field. 
‘‘  They  looked  unto  him  and  were  lightened,  and 
their  faces  were  not  ashamed,”  may  be  said  of 
multitudes  who  have  drawn  from  the  supposed 
help  and  mediation  of  saints  a  fund  of  energy  and 
of  happiness.  The  votary  would,  of  course, 
not  be  content  with  this  statement ;  but  would 
say  that  he  derived  not  only  help  and  inward 
strength,  but  also  success  in  undertakings,  and 
the  miraculous  removal  of  difficulties.  But  here 
we  enter  a  region  where  verification  is  difficult, 
and  both  affirmation  and  negation  are  so  swayed 
by  subjective  elements  that  final  decision  is  not 


280  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


possible.  The  world  of  spirit  is  a  vast  and  little 
explored  region  ;  and  some  phases  or  aspects  of 
it  are  more  accessible  to  some  men,  and  other 
phases  or  aspects  to  other  men.  A  saint,  whether 
he  ever  lived  in  the  world  or  not,  may  by  the 
recognition  of  a  church  or  a  monastic  society, 
become  a  reservoir  of  spiritual  influence,  accessible 
to  faith.  In  the  same  way  many  even  sceptical 
people,  whose  nearest  and  dearest  have  passed 
into  the  world  of  spirit,  have  been  aware  of  a 
new  and  protective  influence,  touching  their 
lives  at  many  points,  sometimes  acting  in  the 
sub-conscious  region,  sometimes  even  rising  into 
consciousness.  It  would  be  rash  to  say  that  such 
experiences  are  baseless.  But  it  is  very  safe  to  say 
that  they  must  be  received  with  caution,  and  not 
allowed  to  override  the  working  of  a  man’s  best 
intelligence  and  will.  Nor  can  they  be  used  in 
an  objective  way  to  prove  the  present  exaltation 
of  the  supposed  source  of  inspiration. 

The  votaries  of  the  saints  will  appeal  to 
spiritual  experience  with  the  same  confidence  as 
will  the  earnest  worshippers  of  Christ.  They 
will  speak  of  instance  after  instance  in  which 
an  appeal  to  a  spiritual  patron  has  been  answered. 
Often,  indeed,  the  appeal  has  been  for  some 
worldly  help  or  advantage  ;  and  the  claim  is  that 
it  has  been  granted.  But  often  a  higher  tone  is 
used.  Those  who  have  adopted  the  monastic 
life,  in  particular,  have  often  felt  within  them  a 


THE  COMMUNION  OF  SAINTS 


281 


power  not  of  this  world,  which  they  have  attributed 
to  the  working  of  some  inspiring  Power  from 
without  them,  and  have  associated  with  some 
historic  saint  or  martyr,  who  seems  to  have  found 
in  them  a  new  life  upon  earth. 

It  is  possible  to  brush  all  this  inward  life 
aside  as  the  fruit  of  mere  superstition  and  delusion. 
But  such  cavalier  procedure  is  not  justified, 
since  undoubtedly  facts  of  experience  are  at  the 
basis  of  it.  And  so  long  as  the  votary  keeps  his 
assertions  within  the  bounds  of  his  experience, 
it  is  not  easy,  nor  is  it  usually  desirable,  to  argue 
him  out  of  his  beliefs.  But  when  we  turn  from 
mere  subjective  experience  to  life  in  the  world, 
and  the  facts  of  conduct,  it  is  evident  that  a 
searching  criticism  is  necessary  to  give  inner 
experience  its  due  and  proper  place  in  the  scheme 
of  the  universe.  Two  tests  have  to  be  applied. 
First  there  is  the  test  of  history,  and  second 
there  is  the  test  of  results,  of  fruits. 

I  have  already  considered  the  historic  test. 
The  moment  it  is  applied  we  see  a  vast  difference 
between  faith  in  Christ  on  the  one  hand,  and 
faith  in  subordinate  Christian  personalities  on 
the  other.  We  have  seen  that  on  broad  historic 
grounds  faith  in  the  risen  and  exalted  Christ  can 
be  fully  defended.  It  lay  at  the  very  roots  of 
the  rising  Church,  and  has  never  in  the  history 
of  the  Christian  faith  wholly  died  away.  As  to 
the  saints,  few,  indeed,  of  those  who  have  been 


282  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 

dearest  to  societies  and  coteries  have  been 
among  the  great  figures  of  historic  Christianity. 
St  Paul  indignantly  reproves  those  who  would 
exalt  Peter,  or  Apollos,  or  himself  into  the  heads 
or  oracles  of  societies.  The  patron  saints  of  the 
coteries  have  usually  been  persons  of  whose 
history  little  is  known,  and  that  little  is  often 
not  greatly  in  their  favour.  Thus  there  is  a 
deep  and  impassable  abyss  between  the  historic 
grounds  of  the  faith  in  Christ  and  the  historic 
grounds  of  all  other  forms  of  personal  worship 
in  Christianity. 

The  second  test,  that  of  practical  fruits,  the 
ethical  test,  is  the  one  which  is  set  forth  fully, 
and  enforced  by  a  multitude  of  appeals,  in  the 
Gospels  themselves.  Surely  there  is  no  need  to 
cite  passages.  ‘‘  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know 
them.”  “  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me. 
Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven ;  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father 
which  is  in  heaven.”  “  He  that  heareth  my 
words,  and  doeth  them  not,  I  will  liken  him  to  a 
foolish  man,  who  built  his  house  on  the  sand.” 
And  not  only  is  this  the  authorised  test  for 
Christians,  but  it  is  the  test  which  the  common- 
sense  of  mankind  in  all  ages  has  insisted  in 
applying.  Men  try  the  spirits  to  see  whether 
they  lead  to  good  or  to  evil,  and  thereby  judge 
of  the  reality  of  the  inspiration. 

There  is  no  need  to  attack,  or  even  to  criticise. 


THE  COMMUNION  OF  SAINTS 


283 


the  consciousness  which  many  eminent  and 
devout  persons  have  had  of  spiritual  aid  received 
from  some  saint  of  Christian  history,  or  it  may 
be  from  some  friend  or  relative  of  their  own 
who  has  passed  from  the  visible  world.  If  it 
lead  to  a  better  life  it  is  justified  by  fruits ;  very 
seldom  is  it  a  source  of  corruption.  What  we 
may  fairly  insist  upon  is  that  however  valuable 
such  an  influence  may  be  to  the  individual,  that 
individual  has  no  right  to  impose  upon  others 
the  belief  in  the  inferences  which  he  may  draw 
from  the  experience  as  to  the  supermundane 
being  of  his  saint. 

If  we  set  aside  the  merely  historic  claim  of  the 
saints,  and  look  at  their  communion  in  a  broader 
light,  we  shall  see  that  it  may  in  a  sense  be  justified. 
In  the  chapter  which  deals  with  the  Eternal 
Christ,  I  have  tried  to  show  that  the  mystic 
form  of  the  worship  of  Christ  does  not  dwell  so 
much  on  the  records  of  his  life  in  the  world,  on 
what  St  Paul  calls  “  Christ  after  the  flesh,”  as 
on  the  divine  element  which  lay  beneath  that 
life  and  which  is  eternal.  In  the  same  way  the 
mystic  view  of  the  communion  of  saints  does 
not  dwell  so  much  on  the  events  of  their  lives, 
as  to  which  we  are  seldom  well  informed,  as  on 
the  fact  that  so  far  as  they  were  saints  they 
exhibited  in  the  world  a  phase  of  the  divine  ; 
they  continued  the  obedience  of  Christ,  and 
filled  up,  as  St  Paul  says,  the  measure  of  his 


284  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


sufferings.  The  Power  whieh  sustained  and  in¬ 
spired  them  was  an  eternal  power  which  is  still 
working  in  the  world,  and  working  more  effectu¬ 
ally  because  of  the  obedience  with  which  they 
accepted  it,  and  the  energy  with  which  they 
furthered  its  working.  In  this  view  Christ  and 
the  saints  make  up  an  unity,  an  unity  into 
which  every  Christian  may  hope  to  be  received, 
so  that  he  in  turn  may  help  forward  the  baptism 
of  the  world  into  Christ.’  And  so  long  as  it  is 
the  divine  power  working  in  saints,  which  is  the 
real  object  of  worship,  that  worship  is  at  least 
innocent. 

From  this  point  of  view  we  see  a  test  to  be 
applied  to  the  communion  of  men  with  the  world 
of  spirits.  If  that  communion  is  only  with  the 
phenomenal  life  of  the  deceased  in  the  visible 
world,  it  is  only  according  to  the  flesh,  and  is 
subject  not  only  to  human  fallibility,  but  also  to 
confusions  of  all  kinds,  and  even  deceptions  by 
unworthy  spiritual  agencies.  But  if  it  is  with 
the  divine  element  in  the  deceased,  it  is  in  effect 
with  God,  God  as  revealed  in  the  spirits  of  men. 
“  The  souls  of  the  righteous  are  in  the  hand  of 
God  ”  ;  and  every  spiritual  effort  and  achieve¬ 
ment  makes  more  accessible  the  stream  of  divine 
influence  which  beats  upon,  works  through,  and 
spiritualises  the  existing  frame  of  the  universe, 
especially  of  the  universe  of  human  beings. 

But  the  Church  as  the  earthly  body  of  Christ, 


THE  COMMUNION  OF  SAINTS 


285 


as  continuing  on  earth  the  obedience  of  Christ, 
and  as  inheriting  his  relation  to  God,  is  a  part 
of  the  spiritual  world  which  has  a  definite  and 
special  character.  To  define  the  limits  of  the 
Church  on  earth  is  impossible,  since  it  is  not  a 
mere  organisation,  but  a  spiritual  communion, 
which  marks  its  nature.  But  this  indefiniteness 
does  not  prevent  the  Church  from  being  in  a 
sense  an  unity.  Of  this  unity  the  Fourth  Gospel 
is  the  great  charter. 

The  ideal  Christ  of  the  Fourth  Evangelist  often 
insists  on  the  theme  that  what  is  true  of  himself 
is  true  of  his  disciples  also.  He  is  the  vine,  they 
are  the  branehes.  As  he  is  one  with  God,  so 
are  they  one  with  him.  The  works  that  he  does, 
they  shall  do  also  :  nay,  more,  they  shall  do 
even  greater  works,  because  his  death  will  bring 
God  nearer  to  man,  and  increase  the  store  of 
divine  influence  working  in  the  world.  Thus  the 
effects  which  the  divine  obedience  and  suffering 
of  Christ  work  in  the  spiritual  world,  will  be 
supplemented  and  reinforced  by  every  act  of 
obedience  and  every  patient  suffering  endured 
by  the  followers  of  Christ.  Thus  is  God  ever 
drawn  nearer  to  men,  and  the  higher  life  of  the 
Church  stands  in  intimate  relations  with  the 
whole  spiritual  powers  of  the  universe. 

Christians,  however,  use  the  word  Communion 
in  a  special,  almost  a  technical,  sense.  By  it 
they  mean  the  great  central  rite  of  Christianity, 


286  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


in  which  in  a  mystic  sense  they  eat  the  flesh 
and  drink  the  blood  of  the  Founder.  And  they 
think,  or  one  may  say  they  know  by  experience, 
that  by  that  sacred  feast  they  enter  into  the 
Christian  communion  of  saints.  They  enter  con¬ 
sciously  into  a  four-fold  relationship.  First,  with 
all  Christians  in  all  lands  and  all  Churches  who 
partake  of  the  same  rite,  with  whom  they  enter 
into  what  may  be  called  a  blood-relationship, 
and  whom  they  accept  as  brothers  and  sisters  in 
the  faith,  putting  away  all  sense  of  injury  and 
offence,  longing  only  for  a  closer  and  more 
intimate  union.  Second,  with  all  Christians  who 
in  past  ages,  from  the  earliest  days  of  the  faith, 
have  partaken  of  the  communion,  and  been 
lifted  up  and  purified  by  it.  Third,  with  the 
exalted  Head  of  the  Church,  with  whom  their 
spirits  come  in  contact,  whose  life  upon  earth 
they  try  to  continue,  and  to  be  part  of  the  earthly 
body  of  which  Christ  is  the  soul.  And  fourthly, 
through  Christ,  with  the  infinite  and  eternal 
Father,  to  do  whose  will  in  the  world  was  the  one 
purpose  of  Jesus,  whether  in  life  or  by  death, 
and  who  ever  stands  at  the  door  of  the  heart  of 
every  man  who  is  born  into  the  world,  waiting 
for  admission,  asking  for  love  and  confidence, 
desiring  co-operation  in  the  practical  life. 

Thus  the  Christian  rite  of  the  Lord’s  Supper  is, 
I  do  not  say  the  necessary,  but  the  usual  means, 
by  which  the  communion  of  saints  becomes  a 


THE  COMMUNION  OF  SAINTS 


287 


religious  reality.  Whether  an  individual  prefers 
a  more  frequent  or  a  rarer  participation  in  the 
rite  is  a  matter  of  habit  and  temperament. 
There  is  nothing  magical  in  its  operation.  Its 
place  is  even  taken  in  a  great  degree  among 
certain  Christian  bodies  by  other  rites.  Every 
truly  spiritual  road  leads  to  God.  But  the 
Eucharist  does,  and  has  all  through  Christian 
history,  been  the  road  most  frequently  trodden, 
sometimes  in  a  superstitious  and  materialist 
spirit,  sometimes  in  a  mood  of  lofty  aspiration. 
It  IS  not  for  man  to  judge  in  such  matters,  but 
for  God  who  sees  the  heart. 

If  the  view  set  forth  in  our  first  chapters  be 
accepted,  there  is  a  sense  in  which  the  doctrine 
of  the  Communion  of  Saints  may  be  accepted 
without  doing  violence  either  to  the  principles  of 
scientific  history  or  to  the  facts  of  experience. 
If  an  individual  life  be  regarded  as  like  a  gulf 
of  the  sea,  connected  with  the  vast  ocean,  and 
through  that  ocean  with  every  other  gulf  and 
bay  in  the  world,  we  have  an  interesting  analogy. 
The  gulfs  may  be  of  any  size,  small  or  great, 
and  they  may  be  connected  one  with  the  other 
in  all  sorts  of  relations.  But  all  alike,  as  parts  of 
the  ocean,  they  follow  the  attractive  power  of 
sun  and  moon,  rising  and  falling  at  intervals  ;  and 
for  their  very  being  they  depend  upon  the  con¬ 
nection  with  the  water  system  of  the  globe.  Yet 
each  gulf  has  a  character  of  its  own,  which  it 


288  PRACTICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF 


retains  although  the  water  in  it,  the  fish  and  the 
sea-plants,  may  be  constantly  changing.  So  the 
lives  of  individuals  are  an  embodiment  under  the 
forms  of  space,  time,  and  matter  of  some  branch 
or  aspect  of  the  spiritual  world.  The  Church 
consists  of  myriads  of  individual  lives  ;  past  and 
present,  if  we  consider  them  in  relation  to  time 
and  history,  but  representing  and  reflecting 
realities  which  are  above  time  and  space.  As 
these  realities  were  more  completely  embodied  in 
individuals,  so  they  may  be  less  completely 
embodied  in  those  who  love  and  admire  such 
individuals.  In  extreme  cases,  individuals  may 
become  almost  reincarnations  of  departed  saints 
and  heroes,  and  live  their  lives  over  again  amid 
fresh  surroundings  ;  but  far  more  often  it  is  only 
in  particular  phases  or  aspects  of  the  new  lives 
that  the  lives  which  have  gone  before  are  reflected. 
Sometimes  it  is  a  continuous  influence  of  person¬ 
ality  bequeathed  by  great  saints  and  coming 
down  through  a  succession  of  followers  ;  some¬ 
times  it  is  a  revived  influence  coming  from  the 
thoughts  and  enthusiasms  which  they  have  com¬ 
mitted  to  literature ;  sometimes  the  influence 
may  flow  in  other  and  sub-conscious  ways. 


PRINTED  IN  GREA,T  BRITAIN  BY  NEILL  AND  CO.,  LTD.,  EDINBURGH. 


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